Financial expert advises parents to teach their young ones to save

A financial literacy expert from Mountains of the Moon University, Revocate Abwoli Keneema has advised parents to teach their young ones to save so that they can effectively plan for their future, “parents should teach their young ones how to save for instance using piggy banks and every person can save, young or old, rich or poor. You can never say that you have no money” Said Revocate while appearing on the ToroDev supported live radio discussion on Better FM called Listeners Forum on Sunday, 25^th January 2014.

Bank of Uganda Headquarters which regulates financial sector

Revocate further advised people to focus on saving the little they have rather than getting loans because loans come with costs, “you can avoid loans through saving because loans comes with costs” Said Revocate.

The live radio discussion which broadcasts every Sunday (08-10pm) and discussing a topic on financial literacy was also attended by Kumwe Bbala Eric from Initiative for Rural Development Uganda who advised people to always know what they are going to use the loan for before getting it, “you must also know what you are going to use the loan for? For instance school fees is coming and it’s important to save for school fees rather than getting a loan to pay for school fees and many people fail to meet their loan obligations because of lack of a proper plan” Said Eric.

Eric also sensitized the public on some of the basics of managing a loan, “when you get a loan, you have to know that you have to pay it back. Getting a loan also needs security and every loan has costs attached to it. In getting a loan there are also costs for instance a person from Fort Portal it’s not advisable to get a loan from Mubende.” Said Eric.

Listeners participated through call-ins, SMS and online for instance Nsimenta Apollo from Kamwenge sent an SMS inquiring whether there are Boda Boda or agricultural loans. Nguru Benson from Ntoroko sent an SMS saying that loans these days are a problem.

Mugisa from Kasese called-in and said that most people get loans and go to the butcher to buy meat or bar to drink and hence end up mis-using the loan. Benon from Hakibaale called-in and advised the listeners to use the loans to achieve the objectives they were got for. Ronald from Mugusu called-in and inquired what can be done when you get a loan, buy a cow and it dies?

 The live radio discussions are supported by SIDA/CIPESA and NED on a project aimed at converging appropriate ICT tools to improve service delivery in the Rwenzori Region.

Local citizens request for improvement of priority service delivery

Local citizens have requested their leaders to first focus on priority service delivery to enable their electorates benefit from their leadership, “we need our leaders to first focus on key service delivery areas like roads, health and schools because in many of our areas like Buheesi [Buheesi Sub County is located in Kabarole District] service delivery is poor therefore our leaders haven’t performed to their expectations” Said Asaba Charles, a local citizen from Buheesi Sub County, Kabarole Ditrict while participating on the listeners forum live radio discussion on Better FM on Saturday, 11^th January 2015.

Asaba adds, “Most of the roads in Kabarole district were very impassable during the last rainy season and when the roads are poor, the transport costs increase, investors also fear to invest in the area which affects economic development. The health sector is even worse in-terms of service delivery because there are no drugs and the best medicine they always have is panadol and as you know when someone goes for a free service in a public hospital, it means that they have no money to buy drugs. If leaders give local citizens good services, their livelihoods will highly improve.

A poor road in Kicwamba Sub County, Kabarole District

The live radio discussion which is supported by ToroDev in partnership with Better FM also allows listeners to participate through call-ins, SMS and online. Keneema Revocate participated on facebook and indicated that the poor performance of schools is because of poor roads because many students fail to go to school due to poor roads. Ngabirwa from Bundibugyo called-in and said that the poor service delivery is a result of leaders failing to come back and consult the electorates on their priority service delivery needs.

Harriet from Kyenjojo district called in and indicated that Kyabaranga Primary School is performing poorly because the head teacher has never been transferred despite the poor performance of the school. She also indicated that many local citizens are facing a problem of poor service delivery because they nolonger hold meetings and only use opportunities like burials and weddings to communicate with their electorates.

Benon called-in and said that the poor service delivery is a result of local citizens not understanding the roles of their leaders because sometimes they ask for too much.

The live radio discussion is supported by SIDA/CIPESA and NED on a project aimed at using appropriate ICT tools to improve service delivery.  

Understanding the role of MPs in Uganda

The Kabarole district councilor Hon. Paul Katisa while appearing on the orukurato live radio discussion indicated that the main role of a Member of Parliament is to represent people in the parliament, present their problems, issues, plans and ideas, lobby for the people to have improved service delivery and follow up the Government plans among other roles.

Hon. Jacob Oulanyah - Deputy Speaker Uganda Parliament

Katisa added that the Members of Parliament is supposed to follow-up the government funds to ensure proper accountability in the management of public resources.  

The district councilor was appearing on the orukurato live radio discussion on Saturday 3^rd January 2015 on Hits FM to discuss a topic titled, “Understanding the role of MPs in Uganda.” 

During the talkshow listeners also participated using call-ins, SMS and online and over fifteen (15) local citizens called in, among them three (3) were women. 

Local citizens are not happy with the MPs because they have failed to provide services for 4 years they have spent in the parliament. According to Richard from Kagote west division, Kabarole district, he explained that Member of Parliament pledge but do not fulfill their promises, He further said the roads in Kagote are impassable during rainy seasons, very dusty during dry seasons, full of potholes, shoddy work is always done when the road is to be worked on, and we have talked and talked but we can’t see any member of parliament lobbying for us.

According to Mary a caller from Mujuju Kabarole District, members of parliament are just in the parliament to enjoy the taxes we pay and we are here suffering with poor roads, lack of enough medicine in hospital and no one to lobby for us.

Andrew a caller from Mukubo Kabarole District indicated that members of parliament have disappointed us, because they make false promises just to win votes and when they get to parliament they don’t come back on ground to consult their electorates.

More about the roles of MPs follow this link http://www.parliament.go.ug/new/index.php/about-parliament/functions-of-parliament

The live radio discussion is supported by SIDA/CIPESA and NED on a project aimed at converging the use of appropriate ICT tools to improve service delivery.  

Local citizens request for improved service delivery from their leaders

Local citizens from Hakibaale Sub County, Kabarole District have appealed to their leaders to effectively lobby and plan for improved service delivery to enable the electorates gain from their leadership, “my MP should have lobbied for better roads, effective health service delivery, better performance of the education sector for instance in Kahangi, our schools are performing poorly because our MPs are busy passing useless laws like the Public Order & Management Bill. Our MPs are also spending our tax payers money taking drinks and having good meals in Kyankwazi.” Said Mwanguhya Kenneth while appearing on the listener’s forum on 4^th January, 2014 at Better FM.

Mwanguhya further adds that, “the only good thing is that the local citizens are now more aware of their rights and hence prepared not to elect them back to parliament in the next elections (2016 Uganda General electons).

The listeners forum which is broadcast every Sunday (08:00 – 10:00pm) on better FM and supported by ToroDev was discussing a topic titled, “Have leaders especially MPs fulfilled their responsibilities.”

Uganda Parliament

Mugisa Moses also from Hakibaale Sub County Committed citizens for better service delivery who was also a panelist on the live radio talkshow also decried the poor performance of leaders especially Members of Parliament, “the primary responsibility of MPs is to legislate and oversight. However, our MPs haven’t performed to their expectations because there is a lot absenteeism for instance on average we always never have more than 100 MPs in every session out of the over 300, even recently the Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah said that the 9^th parliament haven’t performed to their expectations,” Said Moses.

Listeners participated in the live radio discussions through call-ins, SMS and online for instance Byamukama from Kabende Parish wanted information on the progress of the national Identity cards. John from Hakibaale Sub County called-in and indicated that they are waiting for elections to show their dissatisfaction to non performing leaders. Natukunda from Burahya County called-in and said that Kagwera (MP Burahya County, Kabarole District) has done a good job in lobby for better roads. Atugonza from Bufunjo Sub County, Kyenjojo district requested for their MP to also come and give accountability to the electorates.

“We are poor because of ignorance,” Bbala Eric

The Coordinator of Initiative for Rural Development – Uganda, Bbala Eric has advised local citizens to invest time and resources in acquiring knowledge on financial literacy so as to uplift their livelihoods. “We are poor because of ignorance for instance when we go to invest we invest in poor breeds of cattle. People in the developed countries have a lot of information on savings, investments, planning for old age, credit management and financial service providers among others,” Said Bbala while appearing on the orukurato live radio discussion on 20^th December, 2014 to discuss issues of financial literacy.

Bbala added, “to develop in business, you need to know how well to use the finances which doesn’t need to always be a lot because even with little money you can save and invest. Today the economy of Uganda is performing poorly and therefore to uplift our livelihoods, we also need to forego some luxuries like alcohol.” Said Bbala.

Bank of Uganda Headquarters which is spearheading a financial literacy project with GIZ

Bbala indicated that it’s important for people especially the youth to improve their entrepreneurial abilities because even the jobs are limited for the many skilled workers, “We have many students graduating but the jobs are very minimal and hence the need to be more financially literate to better plan for the little we have.” Said Bbala.

The orukurato live radio discussion which is supported by ToroDev in partnership with Hits FM and broadcast every Saturday of the week (08:00 – 10:00pm) was also attended by Ngabirano Charles and Baherirwe Anthnas who are small scale entrepreneurs from Rwimi Sub County, Kabarole District.

Baherirwe Anthnas also advised local citizens to equip themselves with more information and knowledge to improve their businesses, “We got a lot of information from many partner institutions like RUDEC. I benefited a lot in-terms of business skills. However there is also need for proper planning to develop because developed countries like Germany were poor but are now well off because of proper planning” Said Baherirwe.

Listeners of the orukurato live radio discussions also participate through call-ins, SMS and online especially on the orukurato facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/groups/1451619451731153/] for instance Edward from Kabarole called-in and encouraged listeners to form SACCO’s so that government can come in and support while Happy Stephen from Bunyangabu, Kabarole district called-in and requested some information on how people can be part of SACCO’s.

The orukurato live radio discussion is also supported by SIDA/CIPESA and NED and moderated by Kasigazi William.