By Elijah Khisa
Senior Presidential Advisor on Mobilisation (SPA/M) in the Office of the President, Moses Byaruhanga, has raised concern over 263 SACCOs in the Kampala Metropolitan Area that he said cannot be traced despite having benefited from government funding.
Byaruhanga said he was shocked to learn from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development that only 303 of the 566 SACCOs registered in the Kampala Metropolitan Area, covering Kampala and Mukono, were active and traceable on the ground.
He said the remaining 263 SACCOs were unaccounted for despite having reportedly benefited from government funding.
Byaruhanga made the remarks on Friday, September 18, 2026, while officiating at the launch of the National Youth Cadres Association (NYCA) Strategic Plan 2026/27 at Nakasero Primary School sports grounds.
He also donated Shs6 million to facilitate delegates with transport back to their respective upcountry stations.
The strategic plan is themed “The Role of Youth in Advancing Tenfold Growth Strategy, Climate Change Mitigation and Environmental Conservation.”
According to the association’s leadership, the plan is intended to provide policy direction and guidance in implementing priority projects and programmes, including fighting corruption at community level, environmental conservation, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness campaigns, economic empowerment programmes, political mobilisation, civic activities and participation programmes.
The association brings together National Resistance Movement (NRM) university and tertiary institution youth chapter councils and other youth development-oriented groups from across the country.
Addressing more than 600 participants, Byaruhanga said he had tasked the Ministry of Finance to provide him with a list of all SACCOs registered in the Kampala Metropolitan Area, but the findings were disturbing.
“Out of a total of 566, only 303 were practical, active and traceable on the ground, leaving 263 unaccounted for, yet they effectively benefited from government funding,” Byaruhanga said.
He questioned the whereabouts of the missing SACCOs, saying they appeared to have been active and traceable at the time of registration but disappeared after receiving government funds.
“These missing SACCOs must be ghosts because at registration they were active and visible with purported addresses, but after getting billions of government funds, they just disappeared without a trace,” he said.
Byaruhanga instructed the NYCA leadership to mobilise its structures in communities to help trace the whereabouts of the SACCOs and, where wrongdoing is established, ensure that those responsible are arrested and prosecuted.
He also urged young Ugandans to take advantage of government poverty eradication programmes, including Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM), by forming and joining sector-specific SACCOs.
Byaruhanga said the national uptake of government funds among youth remained low, estimated at between 18 and 20 percent, despite the official 30 percent allocation for the youth.
He said this meant that out of the Shs1 trillion injected into the 18 PDM sectors, young people could be missing out on about Shs100 billion annually.
He questioned the effectiveness of parish youth council chairpersons, who sit on parish PDM committees and are mandated to ensure that young people in their constituencies participate in the programme.
Byaruhanga said the youth should take advantage of their numbers to access opportunities reserved for different categories under government programmes, including 30 percent for women, 10 percent for older persons, 10 percent for persons with disabilities and 30 percent for youth.
He added that the government had separately set aside Shs45 billion annually for people and entities outside the designated categories under Emyooga and PDM, urging youth groups to apply for the additional funding to expand their SACCOs.
Meanwhile, the Head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Brig. Gen. Henry Isoke, represented by the unit manager, Mr Bamwine Muhorozi, urged NYCA members to use their structures and influence to help government fight corruption in their communities.
Muhorozi encouraged the youth to demand accountability from sub-county technical leaders responsible for implementing government projects and programmes.
“As State House, we look at you as a valuable resource group of cadres with potential and capabilities to confront, through the use of shared intelligence information, those responsible leaders entrusted with the mandate to offer quality social services to the public,” he said.
He said youth leaders were free to work with stakeholders including Resident District Commissioners (RDCs), Resident City Commissioners (RCCs), town clerks, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), elected local council leaders and civil society organisations to promote service delivery.
The Executive Director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), Canon Benson Turamye, represented by the Manager for Local Content, Ronald Tumuhairwe, said 65 percent of the government budget is allocated annually to the procurement of goods and services.
Tumuhairwe said PPDA issued Reservation Schemes guidelines in 2024 to promote the participation of youth and other marginalised Ugandans in public procurement opportunities.
Under the guidelines, government entities are required to reserve at least 15 percent of their annual procurement budgets for enterprises owned by youth and other marginalised groups.
He said procurements valued at Shs30 million or less in central government entities are reserved for enterprises owned by youth and other marginalised Ugandans, while procurements valued at Shs10 million or less in local government entities are exclusively reserved for the same groups.
He added that under the reservation schemes, youth entrepreneurs are not required to pay bid securities or bidding fees to obtain bidding documents and participate in procurement processes.
Other measures include simplifying bidding documents and establishing an advisory unit at PPDA to provide free guidance to youth on tendering and preparation of responsive bids.
Tumuhairwe encouraged NYCA members to partner with PPDA to conduct community-centred sensitisation campaigns on the benefits of youth participation in government procurement at both local and national levels.
He also pledged PPDA’s commitment to working with the association to reach remote and hard-to-reach communities and build the capacity of local leaders to understand and participate in government poverty eradication programmes.
NYCA Chairperson Ahumuza Penkson welcomed the interventions by government agencies and said the association was ready to mobilise communities to fight poverty and conduct community-centred sensitisation campaigns aimed at addressing grassroots challenges.
He urged Byaruhanga’s office to put pressure on the Microfinance Support Centre and other government agencies handling public funds to reduce bureaucracy in accessing financing.
Ahumuza said faster access to funds would enable more youth and other eligible beneficiaries to receive government support in a timely manner while strengthening accountability among beneficiary SACCOs.
