The short answer
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is the Government of Uganda's programme, launched in February 2022, to move about 3.5 million households, roughly a third of the country, from subsistence into the money economy. Its main tool is the Parish Revolving Fund: government money paid into a SACCO in every parish, which lends up to UGX 1 million per eligible household at 6 percent a year, repayable over 3 years including a 2 year grace period.
In September 2026 government reported UGX 4.317 trillion invested through PDM SACCOs, reaching 3,571,108 beneficiaries, more than 53 percent of them women. The first loans went out in December 2022, and Parliament reported that repayment was to begin from March 2026, so 2026 is the year PDM moves from lending to recovery. This guide covers the loan terms, what a loan can cost you, what to do if your grace period has ended, and who answers for the money.
PDM loan terms at a glance
| Question | The rule |
|---|---|
| Who can borrow | Members of subsistence households not yet in the money economy, organised into a parish enterprise group |
| How much | Up to UGX 1 million per eligible household, and one loan per household |
| Interest | 6 percent a year |
| Term | 3 years, including a 2 year grace period |
| Identity check | Your National ID number is checked against the NIRA database through PDMIS before approval |
| Where the money sits | Paid by the Ministry of Finance through IFMIS straight into the parish SACCO's bank account, not the district's |
| When repayment starts | The first loans went out in December 2022 with a 24 month grace period; Parliament reported repayments to begin from March 2026, and districts such as Mbarara issued their own directives |
Research summaries describe the funded enterprises as mostly farm-linked: crops, livestock and agro-processing. We found no published itemised list of approved enterprises, so confirm what qualifies in your parish with the Parish Chief. Emyooga, the separate fund for constituency SACCOs organised by trade, works differently: see Emyooga explained.
What a UGX 1 million PDM loan can cost you
The programme sets the rate at 6 percent a year. How that 6 percent is applied to your loan must be written in your SACCO's credit policy, and it changes what you pay. Here is the same UGX 1 million loan, repaid in 12 equal monthly instalments once the grace period ends, worked three ways.
| How the 6 percent is applied | Monthly instalment | Total interest | Total repaid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest only from the first repayment, on the reducing balance | UGX 86,066 | UGX 32,797 | UGX 1,032,797 |
| 6 percent flat on the full sum, for the repayment year only | UGX 88,333 | UGX 60,000 | UGX 1,060,000 |
| 6 percent flat on the full sum, for all three years | UGX 98,333 | UGX 180,000 | UGX 1,180,000 |
The principal alone is UGX 83,333 a month. The gap between the first and last rows is UGX 147,203, nearly 15 percent of the loan, on the same headline rate. This is an illustration built on the published terms, not a statement of how your SACCO charges. Ask for your own repayment schedule in writing, and check it with the free loan calculator.
Your grace period has ended: what to do this month
If your SACCO has asked you to start repaying, or you think your first instalment is already due, take these steps in this order. The protections in steps 4 to 6 come from the Tier 4 SACCO Regulations and apply to members of a licensed SACCO.
- Ask the SACCO for your loan statement and repayment schedule in writing. A member may ask for a statement of each transaction on the loan. Check that the amount matches what you actually received, and note the date of the first instalment.
- Pay only against a receipt or a mobile money reference, and keep every one together. They are your only proof if the SACCO's records turn out to be wrong.
- If you cannot pay, speak to the committee before the loan is 60 days overdue. After 60 days the SACCO must classify it as substandard and set aside a quarter of the balance as a possible loss, so expect firmer follow-up.
- You may repay early, in whole or in part, on any business day, without being charged the full term's interest.
- The SACCO must give you 30 days' written notice before changing any term of your loan.
- Interest on a loan in default is capped. The interest a SACCO can recover on a delinquent loan cannot exceed the amount you owed when the loan became delinquent.
If you lead a SACCO, this is the month an audit trail starts to matter: the PDM SACCO accountability guide sets out the records that answer an audit query, finding by finding.
The seven pillars and the revolving fund
PDM runs on seven pillars, as summarised in a 2024 process assessment by the Economic Policy Research Centre: agro-industrialisation, covering the agriculture value chain; infrastructure and economic services; financial inclusion; social services; community mobilisation and mindset change; the Parish Based Management Information System; and governance and administration. The Parish Revolving Fund is the part most households meet directly.
The fund grows in rounds. Each funding round adds UGX 100 million to every parish, so a parish's total is cumulative: two rounds make UGX 200 million, and so on. For FY2026/27 the budget carries another UGX 1.059 trillion, one more UGX 100 million for each of Uganda's more than 10,500 parishes, and the programme is described as moving from its capitalisation phase into a sustainability phase. A UGX 100 million round lent at the UGX 1 million maximum reaches at least 100 households, and it only revolves to the next households if the first ones repay.
Who answers for the money, level by level
| Level | Who is responsible | What they must record |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Finance (MoFPED) | Releases each funding round through IFMIS to SACCO accounts, and now licenses SACCOs through its Microfinance Tier 4 department | Releases by parish, nationally |
| Ministry of ICT and National Guidance | Runs PDMIS | Household and beneficiary records, and National ID checks against NIRA |
| District | The CAO and the district PDM focal person oversee parishes, and the focal person confirms when funds have been sent; both are PDMIS users | Parish-level oversight and compliance reports |
| Parish | The Parish Chief coordinates the Parish Development Committee and is a PDMIS user | Enterprise group membership and eligibility records |
| SACCO | The elected executive committee receives, lends and recovers the fund | Disbursements, repayments, arrears, savings and the fund's bank balance |
Registration sits with the Registrar of Cooperatives at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, and a SACCO that takes savings and lends also needs a Tier 4 licence. That licence used to come from the Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA); on 6 November 2024 Parliament voted to fold UMRA into the Ministry of Finance, which now holds the function.
What PDMIS does
PDMIS, the Parish Development Model Information System, is the government's system for profiling households and following PDM data at parish level, run by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. It checks every applicant's National ID number against NIRA before a loan is approved, which is the main defence against duplicate and ghost applicants, and its users include CAOs, district PDM focal persons, Parish Chiefs and SACCO executives. By August 2025 it had digitised over 8 million household records, about 79 percent of Uganda's households, and recorded UGX 2.5 trillion disbursed to over 2.5 million beneficiaries.
PDMIS does not take away the SACCO's own legal duty to keep books: a cash book, a loan ledger aged by days overdue, a monthly reconciliation and the returns a licensed SACCO files. That is the job of a PDM SACCO management system working alongside PDMIS, and a district's need to see every parish at once is covered by the district PDM funds system.
What the Auditor General has found
Auditor General findings reported in 2025 put numbers on the weak points: 212 PDM SACCOs across 14 local governments could not account for UGX 1.544 billion of fund money not yet lent out; 619 beneficiaries were running ineligible projects and 109 projects were ghosts; UGX 263 million was diverted across 52 local governments; and 2,336 households received PDM loans more than once, against the one loan per household guideline. In 2026 legislators raised low recovery in Nakaseke, where only about UGX 28 million had been recovered.
These describe patterns across the programme, not any single SACCO. Each traces back to a record that was not kept or not checked, which is why the accountability guide above matches every finding to the record that prevents it.
Set this up first: starting a PDM enterprise
A UGX 1 million loan buys an enterprise, not a system. This is the order that costs least, and it is honest about where we fit: at this size, mostly nowhere yet.
- The basics, at their real cost. A farmer selling their own produce needs no trading licence, and neither does a market trader who pays market dues or someone making handicrafts at home. A shop or kiosk does: in Kampala a kiosk licence is UGX 6,000 (Grade IV) to UGX 75,000 (Grade I) a year, and KCCA asks a new business for its business name certificate first. That costs about UGX 90,000 in official URSB fees, UGX 35,000 to reserve the name and UGX 55,000 to register it; owners commonly report paying agents from about UGX 600,000 for the same paperwork. A TIN is free from URA, online in about five minutes with your National ID.
- The habits that cost nothing. Keep the loan in its own mobile money line or account, not the household purse. Write every sale, cost and repayment in a book the same day. Take orders and share prices on WhatsApp Business. Once customers come to a fixed place, claim a free Google Business Profile: how to add your business to Google Maps.
- Once you hold stock worth losing, or someone else sells for you: a sales and stock system such as Growth Informer Business, with EFRIS switched on only when URA requires it; see how a POS system works. At UGX 1 million you are not there yet.
- Later, not now: a website () once customers look the business up by name, with a care plan a month if you would rather not maintain it; a custom system only when no ready-made tool fits; and our URA-registered tax agent service if a penalty, assessment or deadline ever lands, quoted after we see the notice.
Where Growth Informer fits
We build record-keeping systems for PDM: a SACCO system for the parish and a district view across parishes, working alongside PDMIS, never in place of it. We are building this practice now, so we will not claim PDM clients, consultancy assignments or tenders we do not have. What we can show is real: our own working products, including the Growth Informer Loan and SACCO Management System, Growth Informer Business and Moyo Pay, 37 live website and app builds, and our registration with URA as a tax agent.
We offer business consultancy, market entry and investment facilitation, not investment advice, which needs a Capital Markets Authority licence, and we work alongside a client's own advocate on anything legal. To start, send us on WhatsApp a photo of one month's SACCO cash book page and the matching bank statement. In the first conversation we tell you what is missing, and whether you need software at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is PDM in Uganda?
The Parish Development Model is the government's programme, launched in February 2022, to move about 3.5 million households from subsistence into the money economy, mainly through a revolving fund lent out by a SACCO in every parish.
How much can I borrow from PDM, and at what interest?
Up to UGX 1 million per eligible household, one loan per household, at 6 percent a year, repayable over 3 years including a 2 year grace period. You borrow through your parish enterprise group and SACCO, and your National ID is checked through PDMIS.
When does PDM loan repayment start?
The first loans went out in December 2022 with a 24 month grace period. Parliament reported that repayments were to begin from March 2026, and some districts, such as Mbarara, issued their own directives. Ask your SACCO for your own schedule in writing.
Can I repay my PDM loan early?
Yes. Under the Tier 4 SACCO Regulations a member of a licensed SACCO may repay early, in whole or in part, on any business day, without being charged the full term's interest.
What is a PDM SACCO?
The savings and credit cooperative formed in each parish to hold and lend that parish's share of the Parish Revolving Fund. It registers with the Registrar of Cooperatives and, to take savings and lend, needs a Tier 4 licence, now issued by the Ministry of Finance.
How much has government put into PDM?
In September 2026 government reported UGX 4.317 trillion invested through PDM SACCOs, reaching 3,571,108 beneficiaries. Each funding round adds UGX 100 million per parish, and FY2026/27 carries another UGX 1.059 trillion.