By Stanley Ebele
KARAMOJA: Only 3.1 percent of the funds meant for women in business under the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) project has been disbursed in the Karamoja sub- region.
The findings are contained in Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development brief about the GROW project implementation across the country.
The report indicates that Centenary Bank disbursed Shs77.8 million while Post Bank disbursed Shs43 million shillings to the women beneficiaries by December 31, 2024.
This means that the region received a total of 120.8 million out of 3.801 billion shillings allocated to Karamoja.
Nansaba Odiira, the GROW Project communications Officer says that the ministry has released only 10% of the funds to the implementing financial institutions as of December 31, 2024.
She said that the ministry releases the money in batches to allow the government track the utilization of the funds given to the beneficiaries.
Information obtained from Centenary Bank Kotido branch, indicates that only 12 out of 120 women who applied for the funds were able to access the GROW money in Kotido.
However, the Kotido Principle Municipal Community Development Officer, Lilly Lemukol says she doesn’t know any of the said beneficiaries.
The Kotido District Grow Project Coordinator, David Moding also expressed concerns over the limited information about the beneficiaries of the GROW project.
Jhanan Otim Olum, the team leader, Centenary Bank Kotido Branch when contacted said that information about the GROW Project beneficiaries is a reserve of the Secretariat at Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development.
Odiira, when asked about the information sharing said that all the banks implementing the GROW Project activities signed a consumer protection law that limits them from sharing information unless express permission is granted by the minister.
