Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 701 to 710 of 1537.

• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute on this Motion on the Report by the Special Funds Accounts Committee. view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: It is important for us to appreciate, from the word go, that Uwezo Fund and the Women Enterprise Fund were noble ideas to support the vulnerable groups, those who cannot qualify to get funding from the mainstream banks, to start, expand and sustain businesses. It is important from the word go for us to also appreciate that the uptake of these funds has reported success and failure in various parts of the country. view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, when most of us took over the management of constituencies in 2017, it became apparent that we had very many challenges. The Fund was rolled out in the first term and it appeared as if it was a political gift to various members of the community. The recovery rate was so poor that it was practically impossible to motivate the youth, women and PWDs. I will comment on the Uwezo Fund in Funyula Constituency. First of all, I must comment that since we took over, we have managed to give funds to more than 25 groups some being ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: It is practically impossible for recovery to be successful if we do not facilitate the groups. Many times, in the past one year, 2018/2019, we had to use very ingenious ways to facilitate members of the committee to go all over the constituency looking for the groups to get money from them. Many times, we have had to use NG-CDF vehicles to take them round. Many times, I have had to use personal means to take the members around. That is why I would support strongly that we must set aside part of the money to facilitate the groups to ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: The second issue that is obvious is that the Uwezo Fund uses youth officers in the constituencies to manage and disburse the funds. The youth officers, of course, have other duties and, therefore, their commitment to the Uwezo Fund might not be 100 per cent. Out of the 5 per cent that is set aside for administration, if it is approved or implemented, we should consider employing a substantive person to lead that particular office, so that together with the committee, he can increase penetration to the various parts of the constituencies. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: Again, in some cases, some groups have been denied funding for a simple reason that some members in the group took loans in another group that defaulted. For example, in my constituency, at quite early stages, it amounted to criminal conduct. Members would form groups, elect officials, officials would apply for the money, get the money and secretly share that money without involving the other members of the group. According to the Uwezo Fund records, those members took the money and refused to repay. So, they essentially have been blacklisted. It would be important for the Uwezo Fund committee at ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: We must also put in mind that the process of approval at the head office is uncharacteristically too long. It is inordinately too long. It takes an average of about six to nine months to get approval to disburse funds. By then, the business and the group dynamics will have changed and the interests will have waned. We, therefore, call upon the office in Nairobi to consider expediting the process, so that within two to three months, they have given approval to disburse funds and the real impact of the group or the Fund is seen immediately. In the last ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: When I look at the Women Enterprise Fund in my constituency and in many constituencies in this country, their success rate has been very low simply because of the use of the financial intermediaries. In my constituency, they used financial intermediaries. Funds were disbursed and when the repayment was not forthcoming due to the reasons that afflicted the Uwezo Fund where the funds were seen as political gifts, those intermediaries embarked on a process of auctioning and picking household items, livestock and all manner of household equipment to repay the loans. That alone was a death sentence to the Women ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: As I conclude, we must appreciate that 90 per cent or a substantial percentage of people live in the rural areas and they require support to start businesses. We must also appreciate that many times, they do not have personal capital and obviously nowhere in the world has anybody become rich using their money unless you are involved in dubious activities. I would, therefore, encourage groups of women, youth and persons living with disabilities to take advantage of the Uwezo Fund and the Women Enterprise Fund plus some myriad of other funds available through the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and ... view
• 3 Mar 2020 in National Assembly: With those few remarks, I support the Motion. view