The Emyooga initiative, launched by President Museveni in august 2019, has proven to be a game changer for businesses in Lira city amidst COVID-19 challenges.
A group of beneficiaries have come out to share their success stories on how the program rescued their struggling businesses. With the seed money provided by the initiative, entrepreneurs were able to rent workshops, buy equipment and enroll in training programs to acquire knowledge.
Tailor Sharon Ekit of Sharinica Garments Centre and Technical Services Ltd and her colleagues from Lira City west applied for 30m/= under Lira Municipality tailors Sacco. With the capital injection, they were able to rent a workshop and purchase more sewing machines where 160 trainees have enrolled to acquire knowledge. Today, they have received money four times and their capital has grown to 100m/=.
Similarly, Denis Aguma of Deno catering services received 5m/= from Lira Municipality restaurant owners sacco and added utensils for outdoor catering. He has since expanded his business and can now handle six events per day compared to only two before.
While some businesses are thriving, others faced challenges due to mismanagement of funds. Lira municipality mechanic sacco received the money and distributed it amongst themselves, leading to an arrest and some money being recovered. However, for those who understood the purpose of the initiative, it was a game changer for their business recovery.
The Emyooga initiative aims to create jobs and wealth for subsistence homesteads in the country. It suffered several bottlenecks initially as many believed it was a political reward. However, as the success stories continue to emerge, more entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this opportunity to access cheap credit and boost their businesses.
Lira City mayor has called for a change in mindset among graduates seeking employment to focus on creating job opportunities instead. The Emyooga initiative serves as a reminder that with the right support and resources, businesses can flourish even amidst challenging times.
He also noted that there are success stories on the Presidential Initiative but unfortunately the community deliberately tend to not talk about it but only focusing on the negative aspect of it.
The Lira City Commisioner, Lawrence Egole also acknowledge that most of the SACCO groups that arw performing well through Emyooga are women groups.
The Presidential Initiative on Wealth and Job creation was launched as part of the broad government strategy targeting to transform 68% of homesteads from subsistence to market-oriented production with the overall objective of promoting job creation and improving household incomes.
The initiative is centered on various 18 categories/enterprises/Emyooga covering majority of the hitherto, financially excluded Ugandans engaged in similar specialized enterprise categories.
