Emyooga SACCOS urged to tighten loan appraisals to deter defaulters
Officials in Ibanda Municipality have advised Emyooga savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOS) to devise strong mechanisms to guard against rising non-performing loans if they are to stay afloat and serve their intended purpose.
This comes after a report on a recent operation by the Ibanda Municipality joint loan recovery taskforce showed that most of the SACCOS were being weighed down by bad loans.
According to the interim report, at least UGX 16.4m was recovered by 10 SACCOS in Ibanda Municipality out of the UGX 97.1m outstanding loan arrears that was targeted.
Commenting on the report, Grace Ngonzi, the chairperson of the Ibanda Municipality joint loan recovery taskforce, said none of the 17 SACCOS in the municipality was able to collect even half of the outstanding loan arrears during the operation.
Ngonzi said many of the defaulters went into hiding when they learnt about the operation, while others bargained for rescheduling of the loans repayment.
The February 9-11 loan recovery exercise was conducted by a joint taskforce of municipality and district SACCOS leaders, with support from the office of the resident district commissioner and the Police.
