Ministry of Gender Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana has refuted media reports which have consistently suggested State House takeover Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP).
The YLP concept was solely designed by Mr. Bigirimana in 2013 to respond to existing challenges of unemployment among the youth in Uganda.
For close to a decade now, YLP has registered success with uncountable number of youth across the country benefiting from the programme.
However, individuals in government nursing selfish interests have for long peddled misinformation about the fund portraying it as a failure which benefits only members at Gender Ministry ye it has been registering tremendous successes.
Some members who have been attempting to sabotage the programme hail from Ministry of Finance, an institution which acts as a conduit for many corrupt government officials to plunder resources.
In fact, this Ministry most times appears at the heart of all corruption scandals that rocked Uganda in the recent past.
Appearing before a committee of parliament on March 21, Mr. Bigirimana accused this Ministry of sabotage.
“Finance should not defy Cabinet instructions and this is a very sensitive matter; the youth of this country should not be taken for a ride,” he said.
On Wednesday while addressing various dignitaries at Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo who attended Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s 45th birthday, Bigirimana reiterated that YLP hadn’t been transferred but rather a few reforms have been made and adopted by cabinet.
He explained that one of the new guidelines adopted by cabinet to trim the number of groups from 15 per district to 5 for easy management.
Secondly he said money will directly go to the beneficiary’s bank account, the Secretary and Chairman of the group who are signatories then sign for that money and hand it over to beneficiaries.
This way, cabinet was regulating accountability issues.
Unlike in the past when the beneficiaries would deposit the returns (money borrowed) on current bank account, cabinet also approved that the money can be deposited on the savings account.
The government earmarked Shs265b to empower poor and unemployed youth countrywide in the new programme dubbed Livelihood Programme. The programme targets unemployed youth mainly school dropouts of between 18 and 30 years.
For youth venture capital programme, Bigirimana said it is administered through designated banks and the money attracts concessional interest rate. Beneficiaries can secure between Shs5m and Shs25m.
“These funds are paid back after the project has generated profits equivalent to the loan initially advanced to a particular youth group.”
