Govt releases more PDM funds

The government has released more money towards its household poverty alleviation initiative, the Parish Development Model (PDM).

This was confirmed by PostBank Uganda, the government distribution partner of the cash to the final recipients through its mobile wallet platform, Wendi.

Wendi by PostBank is a mobile wallet developed by PostBank to promote financial inclusion among the unbanked.

In partnership with MTN, Airtel and partner banks, Wendi is facilitating saving options, Sacco administration as well as government payments to both individuals and groups.

The amount totaling up to Shs267 Billion was disbursed among 5,322 government-identified and vetted SACCOs country-wide with each earmarked to receive Shs50 million.

"We received the latest batch of money from government on Tuesday, 09th April, to distribute to over 5000 SACCOs around the country covering over 100 districts. We completed the disbursement to all the SACCOs the following day (10th April 2024)," said the PostBank head of agency banking,Mr George William Kiyingi.

Kiyingi further revealed that the cash-disbursement process leveraged the Wendi platform for the quick allocations countrywide.

"The money has already been deposited on the Wendi accounts of the respective SACCOs. The SACCOs need to advise the bank on the authorized approvers as filed at the Registrar of Cooperatives." he elaborated.

PostBank was identified as a key player in the distribution of the PDM cash to recipients countrywide.

This begged for a fast and effective e-platform to compliment the brick-and-mortar bank branch network, as the latter would present operational shortcomings.

PostBank developed Wendi to boost financial inclusion and since its commissioning, Wendi has enrolled over 500,000 beneficiaries and paid over UGX200BN, serving over 5000 SACCOs who are all beneficiaries of the gov't of Uganda PDM programme.

The Wendi platform was also used to pay beneficiaries of the relocation exercise for households facing high risk of landslides in the Elgon sub-region.

The exercise, launched last week in Bududa by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja disbursed cash amounting to Shs2.76Bn to 276 households, with each household receiving Shs10 million.

All payments were done in 5 minutes from initiation to money reaching the beneficiaries.

Mr Kiyingi reiterated the bank’s purpose of fostering prosperity for Ugandans.

This is being achieved through the bank’s target segments of Micro, Small and Medium sized enterprises especially those in agro-business.