By Patrick Okaba
Sections of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) group members in Nebbi district have resorted to witch doctors as a solution to reclaim the stolen savings money.
A recent report issued by the Nebbi Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Robert Abak indicates that after losing their savings to thieves, savers first consult the witch doctors rather than reporting the case to the police.
“When money is stolen from groups’ saving boxes in the community, the affected group members don’t even report the case to police but, they rush to the witch doctor to recover the stolen money but, when they fail, they come back to police ” Abak said.
He says, that last year during festive seasons, over Shs150million from three different saving groups in the district lost their money to unknown thieves through house breaking while in other groups, executive members connived among themselves to steal the money.
“In every festive season, we start receiving cases of boxes containing money being stolen from the VSLA members and after failing to sort up the matter among themselves, they go to witch doctors for the recovery of the stolen money”, Abak said.
Mr Patrick Okumu, a group member of the Merber savings group in Nebbi town says, when they lost Shs 46 million of their savings, the group hired a witch doctor at Shs4 million to recover the stolen money which wasn’t recovered.
“We spent a lot trying to recover the stolen money. Even the group brought in a police sniffer dog and the suspect was arrested but still, the 46 million shillings was unrecovered”, Okumu said.
To curb down the associated risks of keeping money in metallic boxes and theft of money, Post Bank in Partnership with the Westnile Private Sector Development Promotion Center (WENIPS) is empowering the VSLAs group members by embracing the digital transformation as a gateway to economic empowerment by using Wendi Mobile wallets as a key driver towards scaling up financial inclusion in the community.
