How A Million Shillings Turned A Nakaseke Woman’s Life Around: ONC Monitoring Visit Reveals What PDM Funds Can Achieve

A one-million-shilling government grant has done what years of struggle could not, pulling a Nakaseke woman out of subsistence and into a steadily growing small business that now supports her household and gives her reason to plan ahead.

Kamya David Karuhanga, the Office of the National Chairman District Coordinator for Nakaseke, paid a monitoring visit to Ms. Nakanwagi Lydia of Kapeeka Central, Kapeeka Parish, Kapeeka Sub-county in Nakaseke District, to assess the progress of her empowerment project under the government’s PDM-linked initiative.

What he found was a story of careful decisions and quiet determination. Nakanwagi, who received UGX 1,000,000 through the government empowerment programme, channelled every shilling into cabbage farming. She hired land, engaged casual workers, and sourced quality seeds and pesticides, managing the project with a discipline that belied the modest starting capital.

The harvest came in well. Returns exceeded her initial projections, and rather than spending the profits, she made a decision that changed the trajectory of her household economy entirely. She opened a boutique, a small retail clothing business that now gives her a stable daily income and has removed the recurring cost of hiring land every planting season.

“I am grateful to the Government of Uganda and His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for this programme. It has changed my life in ways I did not expect,” Nakanwagi said during the monitoring visit.

Her appreciation was not merely expressed in words. She purchased a television set specifically to follow the President’s public addresses and keep track of government programmes, a gesture that speaks to how personally she connects the initiative to her changed circumstances.

Karuhanga, who has been conducting a series of field monitoring visits across Nakaseke to track the utilisation and impact of disbursed funds, described Nakanwagi’s case as an example of what the empowerment programme is designed to produce.

“When beneficiaries invest wisely and build on what they receive, that is when the programme fulfils its purpose. What we have seen here in Kapeeka is encouraging,” he said.

The visit to Kapeeka is part of a broader monitoring exercise by the ONC coordination office in Nakaseke aimed at ensuring that funds reach intended beneficiaries and translate into measurable economic activity at the household level. Officials say the exercise also helps identify beneficiaries who may need additional guidance or follow-up support to sustain their projects beyond the initial grant period.

Nakanwagi’s journey from a single farming season to a functioning retail business illustrates the multiplier effect that small, well-targeted grants can generate when beneficiaries approach them with intent. Her story is also a reminder that the true measure of any empowerment programme lies not in the amount disbursed, but in what the recipient builds with it long after the funds are spent.

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