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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ATRUA: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2025
Having waited for three years for the Parish Development Model Funds, Lucia Andu thinks the microfinance scheme promised by Bernard Atiku will fix her dreams for business capital.
The fund Atiku said will be interest free and channeled through savings groups in the constituency and managed from a sh250m office block that was constructed during his second term in parliament at Onduparaka.
He said the money will come from the sh200m that Parliament allocates to Members of Parliament to buy posh cars.
“You will not see me driving a Prado because I already have cars. That money will be for your microfinance scheme,” Atiku assured the people.
Andu expressed satisfaction with that promise and stated confidently that it will be fulfilled since Atiku has a track record of fulfilling campaign promises.
“We saw your foot marks when you were in parliament. You paid our children’s school fees. Thank you very much,” added Agnes Joko who said they are eager for January 15 polls day to arrive.
She was referring to the defunct Ayivu Education Promotion fund under which over 120 students were sponsored when Atiku was the MP.
Atiku said he will revive the education fund and take the implementation at parish or ward level that every ward will have ten scholarships (five for girls and five for boys).
Ayivu division examination board has also been formed and a risograph printer ordered from Germany at sh80 to help print exams for routine testing of the children in Ayivu primary school.
Atiku said the four years of loss incurred by Ayivu West constituents has annoyed him because he had concrete plans which remained standing still as a result of the 2021 elections.
“Our microfinance is for everybody, men, women, youths, People with disabilities. You only need to be in groups,” he emphasized.
The money will fill gaps left by the parish development model for which residents are also anxious for the double funding that president Yoweri Museveni has promised for the Wards in urban settings.
Atiku dismissed the propaganda being spread about his promises to sensitise people so that they can benefit from the city status.
He said once the elections are over, he will call a conference of all the local councils and the development partners of Ayivu west division to thoroughly discuss the development agenda.
Atiku said people who have land plots along the main roads should embrace constructing rentals and shops awhile those with one acre should register for the cocoa farming project for which registration is ongoing.
Every prospective farmer will be trained on cocoa agronomy and tractors hire services provided for ploughing for those with big chunks of land.
Some people are residents in the city but have farmlands elsewhere that does not stop them from registering because every registered homestead will be given 500 free seedlings,.
After three years when the cocoa begins to yield, the farmers will be supervised with post-harvest advises and the seeds will be purchased from the farmers’ homes.
“When you plant cocoa, you plant school fees. I urge you to embrace coca because it is not possible for me to pay school fees for every child in Ayivu,” said Atiku.
