Despite the parish development model’s effectiveness, technical banking delays continue to be a problem for the program in Lango areas.
This was confirmed to this publication by Francis Okello Rwotlonyo, the resident district commissioner (RDC) for Amolatar, who said that for the few days the program was launched in the district, the bank experienced some technical difficulties.
These issues have since been resolved, but the number of PDM clients has now increased.
Rwotlonyo noted that despite the fact that the majority of residents in the district have made the decision to purchase livestock and poultry, they are still engaging in a profitable business, which he claimed is what the program is designed to do and raise family income.
He stated on Tuesday that there is hope that this program won’t be like the past YLP and UWEP where many people believe it is just government money that they can only eat and stay without paying back as it has been happening while monitoring the parish development model program in Muntu.
“As Amolatar district, we are honored to be the first district in Lango to receive funding under the PDM. We experienced a bit of a setback post, however; they have since resolved the issue, and people are now receiving their funding.” stated Rwotlonyo
Since he is not the public relations officer, one of the post bank employees at the Amolatar branch preferred anonymity stated that since the system was restored, they now receive a significant number of clients, perhaps between 700 and 1000, which is excessive but they are making an effort to accommodate them all.
Santos Olade, the Lira District assistant commercial officer, stated that although they had authorized over 400 recipients for the PDM fund, there were still difficulties they were having accessing the information.
He highlighted bad network issues, identifying disadvantaged families because others were hiding their information, and ongoing system modifications that, in his opinion, were slowing down their job.
In order to track the growth of the parish development model and determine if the funds are serving their intended purpose, he said they are still working with the office of the resident district commissioner.
As Uganda moves closer to its 2040 goal of being a middle-income country, the government is making more efforts to raise the standard of life for its citizens and has introduced a parish development model that specifically targets the disadvantaged.
