Iganga district Emyooga saccos save shs500m

Emyooga saccos in Iganga district have made savings worth shs509 million, the district commercial officer, Jotham Mweruka has said.

Speaking during the monitoring and evaluation of the program in the district by the State Minister for Microfinance, Haruna Kyeyune Kasolo , Mweruka said the shs509 million had been saved by saccos in the two constituencies of  Kigulu North and Kigulu South.

According to the performance report, in Kigulu north, Emyooga saccos have disbursed shs807million in loans, recovered shs231 million and rasied savings worth shs273.6 million whereas their counterparts in Kigulu south have disbursed shs718.6 million in loans, raised savings worth shs235.6 million and recovered shs161.8 million that had been given out in loans.

“In total, in Iganga district, Emyooga saccos have so far managed to disburse loans worth  shs1.52 billion and recovered shs393.1 million of this whereas shs509 million has been saved,” Mweruka told the minister.

The best performing saccos have since received an additional seed capital of shs20 million.

"The program has increased on peoples' incomes and standard of living because majority got loans from Emyooga saccos which boosted their businesses. The program created employment opportunities to people of Iganga District through access to loans with lower interest rate of 8% which enabled them to startup businesses which are doing well and generating Revenues to the initiators,”Mweruka told Minister Kasolo.

He noted that the programs has brought unity and good working relationships among the business sector as people dealing in the same business who previously were not working together are now on good terms with each other as they share saccos.

The commercial official said they are preparing to form a joint constituency recovery enforcement team to recover loans given out to sacco members in the entire constituency.

He also noted that the poor saving culture is still a problem to many people in Iganga .

Speaking at the function, Minister Kasolo said Emyooga has benefitted a number of people but also blasted politicians who talk ill of the program.

“If you are a leader and given a chance to speak, don’t talk about things you have no idea about. Those talking ill about Emyooga program don’t know what the program is and how it operates,” Kasolo said.