The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has donated 17 tons of maize flour and Eight tons of beans to the families and persons directly affected by the hailstorm that ravaged Ayer town.

Commissioning the distribution of the relief food, Trevor Solomon Baleke, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC) Kole hailed the government for the intervention.

“I thank the office of our Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) who on November 4th, 2021 wrote to the relevant offices regarding the plight of people who were affected by the hailstorms in Ayed Town Council. The hailstorm left our people with no crops leading to food shortage.

“I am here on the behalf of the government to commission the distribution of relief food and I task Chief Administrative Officers (CAO), the District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) and DISO to make sure this relief reaches the targeted people,” he said.

The targeted persons include; households headed by widows, the sick, the elderly, child-headed households, households headed by persons living with HIV AIDS and persons living with disabilities.

“I congratulate you for electing good leaders. They aired out your problems. Getting this aid was in response to the 4th November, 2021 letter of the CAO to the Prime Minister but CAO based on a plight from the local leadership of Ayer Town Council,” he said.

Baleke wooed the people of Kole to continue supporting the government and embracing its programs because they intended to uplift their standards of living.

He asked the people to love their families, their neighbours and to desist from taking the law into their hands but to always seek justice from the relevant authorities.

“We are here to ensure that you members of the lowest social class, the vulnerable poor and the marginalized are happy. We are here to make sure you benefit from government programs. Therefore our offices are open, come and share with us where you feel that you are not satisfied with service delivery,” Baleke said.

According to Emmanuel Olaro, the Chief Administrative Officer of Kole district local government, the farmers were affected by the hailstorm on October 14, 2021 and crops like maize, beans, and groundnuts among others were greatly affected.

“The farmers were completely left with nothing since the disaster was too much. They brought their cry to us, as leaders we wrote to OPM to help us with food relief for these farmers. We are happy that today we are here with the Deputy RDC as he commissions the distribution of this food aid,” said Olaro.

He also warned them against selling the food aid and urged them to take advantage of the current rains to grow crops.

Peter Odur the Ayer Town Clerk said a total 840 households received 20 Kg and 10Kg of maize flour and beans respectively.

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Owners and operators of schools in Uganda have applauded dfcu Bank for the excellent customer service and the support offered to help them weather the Covid-19 pandemic and reopen their institutions. This was during the first dfcu schools’ engagement held this morning at Hotel Africana in Kampala, attended by school proprietors, directors, bursars, and head teachers as well as dfcu Bank Regional Managers and other staff members.

As part of the engagement, the dfcu bank team explained the different financing solutions available to the institutions and received feedback from the proprietors.

The schools called upon the bank to hold financial training workshops in their different regions to further empower them to make the right financial decisions to sustain their schools.

Making a keynote address, dfcu Bank Head of Business Banking Ronald Kasasa commended the school proprietors for managing to reopen their institutions despite the significant challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“When the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, we realised that school proprietors would struggle to reopen their institutions. We therefore decided to offer some relief in the form of extension of repayment periods, reduction of interest rates and many other facilities. Today, we have renewed our commitment to serve you even better. We are grateful for your feedback and look forward to continuing our dialogue with you when we visit your schools,” he noted.

“As we prepare to go into the new school term, we are ready to deal with your emerging needs and look forward to hearing what they are so that we can offer you solutions ahead of time,” Kasasa concluded.

During the engagement, dfcu Bank Senior Manager Enterprise Banking William Kayongo explained the benefits of using the SchoolPay fees system and introduced the Back-to-School solution which enables schools to access up to 30% of their regular fees collection per term upfront to help with beginning of term costs.

The bank promised to hold more regional financial literacy sessions, extendInvestment Clubs to the institutions as well as look into waiving of certain fees, all in a bid to support educators. 

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City Businessman Sudhir Ruparelia has requested Parliament to help him get the ten acres on the Nakawa-Naguru land he originally applied for in order to develop it.

Sudhir told Parliament while appearing before an Ad-hoc committee to explain his interest on the Nakawa-Naguru Land.

“My humble request is that to request in this committee to help me get the ten acres we originally applied for. If they were allocating land to people who don’t exist then what is wrong with me getting 10 acres,” Sudhir told Parliament.

A nine-member ad hoc committee of parliament is investigating the controversy surrounding the land, which is contested by several individuals and companies.

In 2011, the government displaced about 10,000 people to pave way for the setting up of a satellite city but the deal collapsed after Opec Prime Properties, the developer, abandoned the project. Last year, the government repossessed the land and what followed was a massive scramble for pieces of the land.

Being the chairman and majority shareholder in the companies of the Ruparelia Group, Sudhir investments are mainly in the areas of banking, insurance, education, broadcasting, real estate, floriculture, hotels, and resorts. This makes him capable of developing the land to benefit the wider community of Naguru and Kampala city.

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