Can Emyooga lead to African socialism?

Rakai District mobilised Shs606 million in savings over the past year courtesy of the Presidential Initiative on Wealth and Job Creation, otherwise known as Emyooga. 

According to the financial report prepared by the Microfinance Support Centre, which implements Emyooga, the monitoring meeting for the Emyooga programme in Rakai heard that 35 Emyooga Savings and Credit Co-Operative Societies (Saccos) were formed. Eighteen of these in Buyamba constituency, 17 in Kooki constituency.

Buyamba and Kooki reportedly received Shs1.07 billion as seed capital from government and have so far disbursed Shs1.274 billion to members as loans, members were able to raise Shs606 million in form of savings.

The Emyooga programme in Rakai involves 12,713 individuals saving and borrowing towards improving household incomes and boosting job creation. 

In recent weeks, other districts such as Isingiro, Ntungamo et al have embraced the Emyooga programme with signal success. 

However, the minister of State for Microfinance and Small Enterprises, Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune, sent a bare-knuckled message out to the people of Rakai. 

“I have seen the recovery is still 30 percent and not yet 40 percent. The grace period is over and those that took the money, it is high time you returned it. I am giving you three weeks to have this money returned. When you don’t, I will put you behind bars. This is not for jokes,” he reportedly warned.

He added that the Emyooga money is not a handout, but is aimed at savings for sustainability of the Sacco with each member being required to make regular savings with the association registered by the office of the district community development officer. This money, once received, must ultimately be repaid the minister said. 

Emyooga is a Runyankore word meaning a group of people doing the same thing. The Emyooga programme targets Ugandans, especially in the informal sector, who come together in the shape of savings and credit co-operative societies.

However, let’s step away from the ‘elephant’ a little. 

If this money is being used to uplift Ugandan businesses (read incomes) and such businesses become going concerns, the government could interest said businesses in a debt for equity swap. 

In the simplest form of such a swap, the money owed to government (including principal and accrued interest) is converted into shares in the borrower’s business. Shares are issued to the lender in satisfaction of the debt and the loan is no longer owed. That means government would then have shares in viable businesses across the country. 

This will give government a chance to recapture not only the structure of the “traditional African society” but its spirit of communalism. This spirit would then be crystallised by government’s reconciliation of individual advancement with group welfare.

In Kwame Nkrumah’s book Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonisation, he wrote: “Our society is not the old society, but a new society enlarged by Islamic and Euro-Christian influences.” All extant governmental socio-economic policies must recognise this reality and leverage it. 

This means acknowledging the disequilibrium between what was and what is in terms of what could be. After this is done, we must realise that paternalism is real and this in turn means recognising our social backwardness as evidenced by some people thinking Emyooga is a quid with no pro. 

That’s why those who do not make use of this money properly must pay it back while those who use it effectively should not have to pay it back. This implied reward and punishment system will nurture greater initiative, the very fulcrum of development. 

Also, it would give government access to more resources through Sacco shares and taxes in order to fulfil an African socialist vision toward creating a more equitable society.

Mr Matogo is a professional copywriter  

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