President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has directed that the grace period for beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model-PDM and Emyooga programs to pay back their loans be extended to two years.
In this financial year, the government started the program of organizing and delivering public and private sector intervention for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit.
Speaking to leaders from the Greater Masaka Sub-region on his monitoring tour of the government programs yesterday, President Museveni expressed pessimism that the two programs may fail to meet their intentions, if the beneficiaries are rushed to pay back the loans.
He directed the implementing ministries and departments to extend the grace periods of both programs to two years before the beneficiaries begin paying back the loans.
According to the President, the money can hardly leave the intended tangible results if the beneficiaries operate on loan repayment schedules of four months and one-year periods for Emyoga and PDM respectively.
He also cautioned the program implementers against soliciting any registration fees from the beneficiaries, indicating that such charges create unwanted structural deterrence to the targeted beneficiaries, which the government will not tolerate.
