MUSEVENI: Increase Parish Model fund to Sh1.1 Trillion

President Yoweri Museveni has urged MPs from the National Resistance Movement-NRM to approve an increase in the Parish Development Model Fund allocation from 200 billion to 1.069 trillion Shillings.

Parliament allocated only 200 billion shillings to the new model in the current financial year 2021/2022. The approach is the government’s newest attempt to implement at the parish level in order to relieve poverty at the grassroots by moving the 39 percent of families from subsistence to commercial production.

“I urged NRM Caucus members to support the government’s decision to increase funding for the Parish Development Model in order to accelerate economic change at the grassroots level. This is a transition from the government making decisions for the people to the people making decisions for themselves,” Museveni explained.

The model aims to have all agricultural development activities planned and carried out in parishes, and according to the Ministry of Finance, the first three months of the fiscal year will be spent on Parish Chiefs operationalizing the Parish Development Committees that will oversee the new initiative.

The model’s full implementation is set to begin in October. Museveni chastised the Tenth Parliament for rejecting further funding for the new model and instead allocating just 200 billion shillings, which he felt is insufficient, while speaking to MPs under the NRM Parliamentary Caucus at Kololo Independence Grounds.

He asked that each of the country’s 10,694 parishes receive 100 million shillings each year in order to accomplish the necessary production. If the President’s instruction is carried out, the budget for the Parish Model will rise to 1.0694 trillion in the fiscal year 2022/2023.

Each parish may only receive 14.5 million Shillings under the present financial allotment.

Previous government initiatives, such as Entandikwa, the Youth Livelihood Program, the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program, and others, Museveni said, had a number of issues, including individuals in government dominating the decision-making process, a lack of clear criteria, the purchase of low-quality inputs, and a long distance between the money source and the people.

In the early phases of the program, he identified five advantages of the Parish Development Model, including beneficiary organization and formation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives- SACCOs, individual decision making, and procurement of farm inputs, among others.

According to Museveni, the parish SACCOs are to lend money from the Parish Revolving Fund to household persons at a low interest rate under the concept.

He urged the NRM Parliamentary Caucus to embrace the new government program, claiming that at the parish level, all categories of people, including women, youth, the old, and the disabled, may be readily reached.

The government chose and prioritized 18 commodities to be cultivated by individuals and sold locally and globally under the new Parish Development Model. Cocoa, coffee, fish, cotton, dairy, cattle, cassava, bananas, banana tea, tea, beans, vegetable oils, avocado, Shia nut, rice, cashew nuts, sugarcane, maize, and other crops are among them.

When Government Chief Whip Thomas Tayebwa submitted a question, MPs overwhelmingly approved the president’s plan.

The Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, stated that the administration is prepared to begin with the funds already authorized by Parliament. Parish chiefs are already being recruited, according to her.

She also mentioned that the Parish Development Model’s training and operationalization had been taken care of.

The Parish Development Model, according to Minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi, consists of seven pillars: production, infrastructure and economic services, financial inclusion, community data governance and administration, and attitude transformation.

Meanwhile, Museveni announced that a portion of the funds provided to parishes will be set aside for particular groups such as women, youth, and others.