The Inspector General of Police through his Deputy James Achaya has issued a strong warning to police officers who have lost their small earned properties to sharks and Unregulated Money Lenders due to high interest rates imposed on their loans, Spyreports has learnt. DIGP James Achaya made the remarks while opening the 13th Police Exodus Sacco Annual General Meeting at police headquarters in Naguru a Kampala Surburb.
The Police Chief Urged to officers to move from the culture of consumption to the culture of capital formation. “Am here to challenge you to think or look outside the box,” he says. He says home grown solutions are easy to handle and cheaper compared to outside solutions. “To this ,I must strongly caution our officers against the growing reliance on loans especially from sharks and Unregulated Money Lenders,” He Warns adding that such entities have exploited you with higher interest rates.
“These Sharks and Money Lenders have harsh recovery methods and their terms are ultimately erode financial stability and dignity,” He sounds.
He says no officer should fall victim to such systems when a member- owned , transparent and supportive Institutions like Exodus are in place.
However we have reliably been informed that almost half of the Force’s population deserted Police Exodus Sacco and formed other saccos such Pasale among others where they easily get loans very fast. “We left Exodus Sacco because it wanted to give us loans in terms of services such as building a house, building materials among others yet for us we wanted cash loans to solve others issues and they refused to give us,” Says one of high ranking officer.
He added that others officers opted to leave Exodus because they savings worth Shs 100k would be deducted monthly and when officers would go for loans, they would be told that there was no money. “I save with Exodus Sacco for four years without taking a load and when my wife was operated during birth, I wanted a loan but I was told to wait coz all the money was taken by Certain AIGP who would put a lot of interest rate,” Narrates another SP saying the solution was to rush to a nearby money lender for a higher interest rate but he save his wife’s life.
Another officer says Exodus has failed to help officers of lower rank because they have no voice unless they first pay bribes. “Can you imagine when a lower ranking officer wants an emergency loan of Shs 1m, to access it on time he or she must pay a bribe between 10-15% to get it on time yet it is the same % that money lenders charge. So that is why most low ranking officers deserted Exodus Sacco,” Another officer revealed to us.
He says Exodus has got a lot of issues which started with the regime of KK and have never been sorted. “Can you imagine it’s now almost 8 years since KK left police and our Exodus issues have never been solved because the chain still continues,” Another officer states.
