Africa-Press – Uganda. The State minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr David Bahati, has appealed to Ugandans to embrace the government’s Parish Development Model (PDM) if poverty is to be eradicated from communities.
“The PDM funds are grants from the central government to Saccos that will be formed at parish level, but groups will assess it after agreeing to pay an interest of 5 percent per year to facilitate administrative costs,” Mr Bahati said.
“Let us work as a team to ensure this government programme succeeds because poverty at household level does not have religion or political party affiliation,” he added.
Mr Bahati made the remarks while launching the PDM in Kabale District at the weekend.
The function was attended by district councillors and sub-county chairpersons.
President Museveni notes that the programme will lift 3.5 million households out of subsistence farming and into the cash economy.
Prioritised commodities under PDM include coffee, cotton, cocoa, cassava, tea, vegetable oils (including oil palm), maize, rice, sugarcane, fish, diary, beef, bananas, beans, avocado, shea nut, cashew nuts, and macadamia.
The minister also attributed the increasing commodity prices in the country to the two-year Covid-19 lockdown that affected the supply chain of raw materials and finished products.
He said the government would soon prioritise export promotion and the use of locally-available raw materials to substitute those that are being imported as another way of controlling inflation and commodity price increase.
“Sorghum or cassava flour can make bread. Proper management of gold reserves can fund the national budget for more than 100 years. The proper management of iron ore can fund the national budget for about 40 years. Why should the people on the surface suffer with poverty when there are lots of riches underground? ” Mr Bahati said.
The Finance minister, Mr Matiya Kasaija, last month said the main causes of increasing commodity prices are external and beyond the ability of policy makers.
While responding to the questions raised by local leaders on parish chiefs that do not stay at their work stations, Mr Godfrey Nyakahuma, the Kabale Resident District Commissioner, asked the Chief Administrative Officer to prevail over the situation as it may create administrative gaps in the implementation of the programme.
“Parish chiefs that do not reside at their work stations must resign. While my home is in Fort Portal, I stay at my work station in Kabale to ensure proper service delivery,” he said.
PDM funding
The PDM is founded on a parish, as the lowest administrative and operational hub for delivering services closer to the people and is intended to ultimately ensure the transformation of the subsistence households into the money economy.
The budget for PDM was increased from Shs200b this financial year ending in June to a whooping Shs1 trillion in the next FY2022/2023 budget starting in July when each of the 12,000 parishes is expected to receive Shs100m.
The Uganda National Household Survey 2019/2020 indicates that the number of people living in poverty has increased from 6.7 million in 2012/2013 to 8.3m in 2019/2020—with corresponding proportionate increase in poverty levels among urban residents.
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