The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, Rt Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, has asked authorities in Jinja district to take action against money lenders who are cheating and frustrating women entrepreneurs.
She was on Sunday speaking as a Guest of Honour at the closure of Season 3 of the annual Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) Women’s Day Katale 2024 at the Dam Waters Rugby Grounds (Jinja City).
Kadaga’s directive followed a concern raised by Jinja Southern Division Deputy Resident City Commissioner (RCC), Henry Kitambula, who decried the actions of money lenders, saying they are driving women out of business.
“Rt Hon (Kadaga), we are requesting the government to review the law on money lenders. The current law isn’t strong enough. These money lenders are luring women entrepreneurs with loans at a high interest of 20%. This is too much for the women to pay back.”
According to him, the money lenders will give you the money you need for the first loan but will later change the terms of the agreement in order to cheat the borrower.
“They first give you the whole amount you ask for the first loan. When you pay it back, then they promise to triple your loan for the second time. However, when you take the money, they later change the terms claiming that you didn’t pay back in time and the next time, you try to contact them, their phones will be off or sometimes they even relocate from their current offices.”
He said these actions are not only frustrating women entrepreneurs but also driving them out of business.
In response, Kadaga directed the RCC to shut down such money lenders operating in the Jinja district and the Busoga sub-region as a whole who are preying on suspecting women business owners.
“When we were updating the NRM register recently, some voters told us they did not have national identity cards. Money lenders had confiscated them. They move with bags of money and find women in gardens and convince them to take loans and then confiscate their IDs. These people must be dealt with. Shut them down,” she directed the RCC.
Last year, President Museveni directed the Minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development to come up with a statutory instrument to operationalize section 90 of Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders Act 2016 within two weeks to control interest rates.
“These money lenders who are causing suicide to our young people, who allow them to operate? Because I wanted to cancel all the loans of the money lenders,” Museveni said.
