Deputy RCC Lauds Arua Mother City SACCO for Fighting Poverty

ARUA. Swadick Angupale Alemi, the Arua Deputy Resident City Commissioner (RCC) in charge of Central Division, has commended Arua Mother City Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) for supplementing the government’s effort in fighting poverty.

According to Angupale, for the last ten years of operation, Arua Mother City SACCO has supported so many people by giving them loans at a lower interest rate thus creating impact on the lives of the people in Arua City and the West Nile sub-region at large.

Speaking during the SACCO’s monthly general meeting in Kenya Ward on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, Angupale noted that money lenders and other financial institutions have been giving people loans at a higher interest rate and at the end of the day, the loans turn to be the reason for divorce to families.

“Many people, especially women have left their homes and ran away into exile because of loans with high interest rates. So, the government is encouraging communities to come up with SACCOs and that is why Arua Mother City SACCO has helped so many people. The women testified that indeed they are benefiting from this SACCO,” Angupale said.

He further said it is very important to note that people are learning and appreciating what His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni has always advised them to do.

“So, I’m very happy that for the last ten years, Arua Mother City SACCO has supported the communities and the impact is seen from the women who have been picking money and putting it into their businesses to help their families to come out of poverty,” Angupale remarked.

He promised to bring the city commercial officer on board to give technical guidance to the SACCO leaders and members so as to ensure growth and continuity of the SACCO.

Arua mother city SACCO which was started in 2009 has a total of 7, 462 members with at least 150 different SACCO groups affiliated to it across the West Nile sub-region.

Swale Atama, the Arua Mother City SACCO Director, noted that each SACCO group is entitled to a loan of either shs2.5m or shs5m from the mother SACCO at an interest rate of only 10 percent per annum.

But the SACCO which has been a mobilization platform for President Museveni and the NRM party in West Nile is now struggling to survive due to unrecovered loans and lack of support from the government.

Atama said the SACCO is currently stuck with a shs150m unrecovered loan which is still lying in the hands of some group members from the time they borrowed the money in 2019 to date.

Atama is now calling upon President Museveni to consider bailing the SACCO out with the pledge of shs350m he made when the Late Ibrahim Abiriga led them to State House Entebbe in 2016.

During the meeting, Samuel Surundu, the Arua City Internal Security Officer, joined Angupale in thanking the SACCO members for uniting to fight poverty through the saving group.

He urged the SACCO leaders to bring all the necessary documents of the SACCO indicating the activities they are undertaking so that his office can also try to follow up some of their demands.

Samia Maneno, a member of Amaecora women SACCO group in Tanganyika Ward, said so far, her group has picked shs10m from Arua Mother City SACCO in two installments of shs5m each.

She said they are now at the verge of getting another shs5m for the third time to support their businesses.

“The money has helped me to improve my hair dressing salon. Before getting the money from Arua Mother City SACCO, my business was not doing well but after receiving the loan, my business is now booming. I’m now paying the school fees of my child and buying food at home without any problem because the new hair dressing machines I bought have attracted more customers to my salon. Life is now very easy and simple for me,” Maneno narrated.