Ronald Osumba’s Youth Fund cash disbursement claims untrue

Youth Enterprise Development Fund chairman Ronnie Osumba during an interview with The Standard in Nakuru. ( PHOTO KIPSANG JOSEPH)

NAIROBI, KENYA: Youth Enterprise Development Fund Chairman Ronald Osumba last week was hard pressed to counter allegations that the Uwezo Fund was sluggish in processing disbursements.

Several young people had taken to the Fund’s social media pages complaining that loan applications were taking several months instead of the weeks prescribed by the agency.

In his defence during an interview with a local television station, Osumba countered the claims saying the fund has improved its processes increasing disbursements by 500 per cent in 18 months.

“When I joined the fund in June 2016, we were lending about Sh20 million each month,” said Osumba. “Today we are lending about Sh120 million a month… that’s a 500 per cent increment.”

Data from budget estimates from the National Treasury, however, indicate that Osumba’s figures are false.  

Budget estimates for the 2015/2016 financial year indicate that the Youth Development Fund received Sh650 million in capital grants down from Sh200 million the agency had requested.

This translates to roughly Sh54 million each month in money available for disbursement.

In the 2016/2017 financial year, the figures from budget estimates indicate that allocations to the Youth Fund from Treasury went further down to Sh500 million translating to an average of Sh41 million per month in available disbursements.

This is much higher than the Sh20 million Osumba had claimed was being disbursed each month by June 2016 when he joined the fund.

In the current financial year, the youth fund saw a bump in capital grants receiving Sh800 million from the national Treasury for youth loan disbursements.

This roughly translates to Sh70 million in disbursements each month; much lower than the Sh120 million the figures the fund’s chairman gave during a TV interview.  

The fund has projected allocations for youth loans at Sh850 million and Sh900 million for the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 financial years respectively.

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