Visually impaired Cyriaque Sibomana, who lives in Nkumbure Cell of Tare Sector, told IGIHE last week that he is saddened by the delay to disburse loans whose 50% is a grant yet they dearly spent on projects preparation with the encouragement of Umurenge SACCO, a financial institution, through which the BDF loans are channeled.
“They invited us to prepare business projects which we submitted to SACCO towards the end of 2015. The year 2016 elapsed without their response. They came back in 2017 to select the best projects and disappeared again. It is now one year without giving us any update on the progress yet we spent a lot of money on the preparation of the projects,” said Sibomana whose project is among the selected for loans.
Francois Ruhashyampunzi, also visually impaired, shared similar concerns adding that he spent Rwf25,000 on preparing a project of selling sorghum which cost him and his family so heavily with the wife is blaming him on misusing the family resources.
“My project was selected among the 18 but the loans we applied for have not come for a year since the selection and about three years from the projects submission. Our SACCO leader tells us that they sent our projects to BDF branch which also sent them to their head office in Kigali. We were allowed loans amounting to Rwf300,000 of which 50% would be a grant,” he said.
“That Rwf25,000 we spent on the project’s preparation would have supported our child who is doing secondary school,” lamented Ruhashyampunzi.
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Livingstone Nkuusi, the BDF branches coordinator, said on Friday that he is unaware of that problem because BDF does not deal directly with beneficiaries.
“We deal with SACCOs’ refinancing, not beneficiaries. We have a product of the people with disabilities but it is SACCO which applies for loans on their behalf. When SACCO does that application, it doesn’t take long for beneficiaries to access loans. Maybe, their SACCO has not yet submitted in the application because we usually wait for SACCO’s application which we examine; if it meets the requirements, then we release the funds. We do not receive loan project proposals from beneficiaries,” he said.
Mr. Nkuusi added that SACCO might have not submitted the projects or they were rejected and advised expected beneficiaries to visit BDF branch in Nyamagabe for clarification on what happened to their projects.
BDF has a SACCO Refinancing Fund, among other products, which is designed to increasing SACCOs’ lending capacity to many people for poverty alleviation. The product started in the six poorest districts of Nyaruguru, Nyamasheke, Nyamagabe, Ruhango, Gisagara and Karongi but it is currently open to all Saccos in the country.
BDF statistics indicate that the product has so far benefited 26,620 people countrywide with the financing amounting to over Rwf150.4 billion
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