Africa-Press – Uganda. The government has released about Shs9b under the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme for Kampala City dwellers.
While briefing journalists on the new developments in the city, yesterday, the executive director of Kampala Capital City Authority, Ms Dorothy Kisaka, said the Kampala minister, Ms Minsa Kabanda, released the funds on Tuesday.
“In Central Division, we have distributed Shs1.3b to 1,300 beneficiaries. They have already received the money. We are going to distribute Shs1.16b to 1,160 beneficiaries in Kawempe Division, then we shall go to Rubaga Division where we will distribute Shs900m to 900 beneficiaries,” Ms Kisaka said.
She said a total of 67,470 beneficiaries will receive the money on their phones. Each Parish will receive Shs100m.
“We have created 97 saccos out of the 98 parishes. There is one more sacco to be created in Bukasa,” Ms Kisaka said.
The KCCA boss refuted allegations that the PDM funds had been dogged by corruption and kickbacks, saying that when the government sends money to the bank, it is deposited directly to the beneficiaries’ phones.
“When we launched, people were getting their Shs1m in real time as long as they were registered beneficiaries, under the various parishes,” Ms Kisaka said.
She, however, requested the government to consider allocating more PDM funds to the city so that it boosts the economic status of more residents.
Ms Kisaka also announced that the authority had received Shs69b which is part of the Shs78b that is allocated to KCCA annually to finance different development projects, including roads.
She said although KCCA is supposed to receive Shs78b annually for that purpose, only Shs10b had been released.
“The government has released money to our budget and we are using it to deal with the roads,” she said.
Ms Kisaka said several roads were being worked on to ensure that they are motorable ahead of the 19th Non-Aligned Movement and the 3rd G-77 South summits expected to take place at Speak Resort Munyonyo in January next year. About 120 heads of state are expected to attend.
Ms Kisaka said about 15km of road maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrade is ongoing in addition to dealing with areas prone to floods as well as installing street lights.
Some of the roads under rehabilitation include Mukwano, Ggaba, Cape, Salama, Mobutu, Prince Badru Kakungulu, and Tank Hill roads.
Ms Kisaka said the authority has streamlined the cleaning of the city and contracted the Community Saccos and the Seven Hills Saccos for the job as directed by President Museveni.
The PDM, which was launched in February last year in Kibuku District, aims at lifting 39 percent of Ugandans from poverty.
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