Adungu

 By Stephen Candia and Gloria Laker

NEBBI-The rural Small and medium sized entrepreneurs in the West Nile district of Nebbi are  resorting to keeping their money in metallic boxes of the village savings scheme other than with big financial institutions

Padyere County in Nebbi is one area with at least four active Village Savings and Loan association groups with more than 100 members from each group keeping their money in metallic boxes in homes within the villages.  This according to them is aimed at providing easy accessibility of financial support like loans to small and medium sized enterprises (MSE’s)

This new development in the region has lasted for only 18 months according to Phillip Ocakacon, a trainer for the Village Savings and Loan association scheme in Nebbi. In an interview recently, Ocakacon explained that despite the existence of Stanbic Bank, Commercial Microfinance (CMM) and Centenary Bank in Nebbi district, the locals prefer to use village saving scheme where money is kept in locally made metallic boxes for safety

The metallic box
“These metallic boxes are kept by the treasure of the group in their homes. It has three pad locks, one key is kept by the Treasure, another by the Chairperson and the group Secretary keeps the thied key. This is done to limit the chance of one getting tempted to get the money since one person is not able to open the boxes without the other two with the keys.

These boxes are kept in homes built with grass thatch hats with walls made of muddy and wattle, which are not very secure according to Beatrice Achan a member of Piwa Joo group. One  if the reasons they give for choosing metallic boxes other than the bank is due to difficulties in accessing bank loans, high interest rate attached to Bank loan, which are too high for the local man, coupled with Long distance from the community to the financial institutions. “I prefer to keep my money in the Bank because Incase of emergency it is easy for me to access my money from the village savings at any convenient time.”, says Hellen Piwun, Piwa Joo group member

According to Rachel Amiyira Rwoth, treasurer of Can Yabo Yoo.Village Savings and Loan association group, long distances from the community to the financial institution prevents people from traveling to town to safe their money in big and more secure banks and prefer the village scheme. She said that in case of emergency it is easier for them to access their money from the village savings at any convenient time. This was at a half a day public business debate organized in Nebbi by female journalists from Northern Uganda on Village Savings and business development recently..

Fear of misconduct
However, some group members express fears over the safety of their money which they say is in the hands of people with little or no  accounting knowledge.” My fear is that, these untrained persons handling our money could easily be tempted or taken advantage of to misappropriate their money” says Achan. She is afraid there are situations where people borrow money and run away from the village without paying back while other people simply fail to pay on grounds of high competition in the business, adding that those engaged in bee keeping projects face difficulties in saving their money and repaying loan because of inadequate market for their products

Opportunities
According to Rachel Amiyira Rwoth, treasurer of Can Yabo Yoo Village Savings and Loan association group, about 80% of women are actively involved in the village savings and loan association schemes which has improved their standard of living to an extend that they are becoming more self reliance by the day. “Women are now able to manage their finances and run their homes by meeting most of the basic needs including paying school fees, paying for medical care and getting involve in the small-scale businesses which they were not doing before.” Amiyira Rwoth, adding that it has also inculcated the culture of savings among the people at the same time improved on the relationship within the community members. She said the scheme has widen the search for bigger business opportunity, for instance those involve in Bee keeping are searching for bigger markets for their Honey and that a number of people have learnt simple accounting in managing their money.

 In a related development, the West Nile private sector development foundation is set to start exchange programs where members of the village saving schemes will visits neighboring districts in Northern Uganda to learn from one another.  ”We believe that when they visit other districts and share ideas and information, it will give them an opportunity to learn from each others and be able to improve on the scheme.” says Vunde Jenaro Coordinates West Nile Private Sector. END