Gulu youth fail to return YLP money

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Gulu youth fail to return YLP money
Gulu youth fail to return YLP money

Africa-PressUganda. Gulu District has registered low recovery of loans that were advanced to several youth groups under Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) in the Financial Year 2014/2015, Daily Monitor has learnt.

At least 60 youth groups in Gulu District received Shs460 million for both agricultural and non-agricultural projects with repayment grace period of a year.

However, Mr Santo Otto Anywar, the focal point person YLP in Gulu District, said only Shs133 million has been recovered.He said there were a number of challenges while monitoring the projects.

“Some of the youth also changed their projects after getting the money which made it difficult for accountability purposes while others could not be traced as they disappeared from their villages,” he said.

He added: “Covid-19 pandemic made the situation very difficult too as many youth closed their enterprises.”

Mr Otto, however, said there are many youth groups waiting to get the loans but they do not have the money to give them.

“So far there are 17 groups that have applied and were approved but there is no money yet to be given to them,” Mr Otto said.

Mr Peter Clever Ayabu, the chairperson of Ribeber Concrete Moulding Group at Cereleno market, said their group received Shs7.5 million, but faced some difficulty while clearing the loan.

“We were 12 registered members but only three remained in the group because paying back the loan became a challenge to some of them,” he said.

However, Mr Tony Ojok, the chairperson of Gulu high Boda Boda youth group, said they have been waiting for a loan since 2018. His group that has 30 members qualified for a loan of Shs50 million, which they hope to use to procure 10 motorcycles at Shs5 million each.

In 2017, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, threatened to suspend funding to 80 districts citing poor monitoring and supervision which had led to limited impact and low loan repayment.

ISSUE

The YLP programme was put in place to empower youth to harness their socio-economic potential and increase self-employment opportunities and income levels.

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