Govt fails to recover Shs129b youth funds

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has revealed that the government has failed to recover Shs129b under the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) since it was set up in 2013 to support unemployed youth.

Speaking during a meeting with youth leaders in Kampala yesterday, EOC chairperson Safia Nalule said failure to recover the money will affect other government programmes  aimed at supporting the youth.

“By 2018/2019, only Shs40b had been recovered yet these funds would benefit other youth groups, which need startup capital for their small business and reducing the unemployment rate,” she said.
Ms Nalule added that the recovery failure is, among others, attributed to lack of factors of production beyond capital that make doing business unprofitable.

“Holding this money has also contributed to unemployment among the youth because it failed to fulfil its target of being shared in rounds   by several youth groups,” she said.

Mr Edson Rugumayo, the Western Youth MP, said the programme was to run for five years before being reviewed. He said whereas the review commission approved refinancing of the programme, the majority of the youth failed to refund the money.

“People were given money without adequate training in financial literacy and some groups came together for the sake of getting money and then disappeared, which affected the programme,” he said.

Mr Rugumayo added that the review committee also recommended that the sizes of youth groups be reduced to five people for better management but limited funds have stalled the programme.

“We have ideas at hand but what we have been failing is implementation; this also applies to the Parish Development Model, which will address the role of youth in agriculture,” he said.

What govt says
Mr Julius Amule, a programme officer at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, said they send money directly to the project accounts and during recovery, the funds are deposited on the respective district recovery accounts.

“Districts have the responsibility to transfer the money to the Bank of Uganda central recovery account but some districts delay and as of November 2022, we had Shs39,354,583,499b recovered and the due amount is about Shs77b,” he said.

Procedure
Mr Amule said after selecting the groups, they sign the financing agreement and attach a payment sheet to it. He said they had agreed with the districts on the amount the groups are supposed to repay after a certain period of time.

“After disbursing the money we have to support the group by sector experts, reminding them to recover the fund, holding stakeholder meetings on what is happening and after we look at the cases reported compared to the situation and if it’s a genuine case, we refinance the project or reschedule the payment period,” he said.

Mr Amule added that when its abuse of the funds, they use the law to arrest the culprits or confiscate the assets the groups bought using project fund.

He also noted that their greatest challenge was when funds for supporting the programme were drastically cut by 95 percent.