Teachers to get low-cost houses from Sacco cash
Victoria Nile Primary School teachers quarters in Jinja City. Some teachers do not have homes after retirement. PHOTO/ DENIS EDEMA
What you need to know:
- Many teachers who are privileged to teach in government-aided schools stay at school until retirement and later find that they don’t have where to go.
The Uganda Teachers’ Cooperative Savings and Credit Union (UTCSCU) has started the process of building low-cost houses for teachers countrywide. The Sacco is an umbrella body of several teachers’ saving groups across the country.
Speaking at the handover of a Shs10m cheque to Mpala Sacco of Busoga College Mwiri in Jinja City on Monday, Ms Joan Asiimwe, the managing director of UTCSCU, said many teachers have become homeless after retirement.
“Many teachers who are privileged to teach in government-aided schools stay at school until retirement and later find that they don’t have where to go. There is a teacher at
Ntare School who taught for 32 years but was staying in the teachers’ quarters, and upon retirement, he ended up staying with his sister because he doesn’t even own a hut,’’ she said.
Ms Asiimwe said they will build three-bedroom houses at Shs35m each so that teachers can access them through loans.
“We want to encourage teachers to have houses; we shall build them and the teachers will repay through loans,” she said.
“We want them to have personal houses where they can retire to. The loans will target both teachers in private and government-aided schools,” she added.
Mr Paul Butono, the UTCSCU eastern regional coordinator, said the project is still in its infancy stage, adding that they have started registering teachers who have shown interest in the house loans.
Mr Cyprian Musoga, a teacher at Mother Kevin Secondary School, welcomed the project, saying it will help them since most of his colleagues are financially incapacitated yet accessing a bank loan is difficult because of high interest rates.
Ms Juliet Wako, a teacher at Busoga College Mwiri, said many teachers cannot build their own houses because they lack a savings culture.
“If teachers get houses from the Sacco, it will help those in government-aided schools because, for instance at Mwiri, the staff quar++ters are big yet teachers don’t pay utility bills; so they forget to save and build their own houses because of free accommodation,’’ she said.
Ms Wako recalled a teacher who committed suicide allegedly because he didn’t want to leave a life he had been accustomed to.
In July, the Microfinance Support Centre injected Shs5b into the UTCSCU to improve teachers’ welfare, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has driven them to alternative jobs for survival following closure of schools.
