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The celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th was a significant event across Uganda. That day first rains fell across the land, breaking months of extreme heat, many seeing it as a blessing. However, a dark cloud loomed over the official celebration that took place in Kyankwanzi, casting a shadow on the promises of women’s empowerment.
His Excellency, the President Yoweri Museveni joined women in celebration at Kyankwanzi and was a witness to an unexpected moment of raw frustration that took center stage. Betty Muhaye, a resident of Kyankwanzi, courageously took the microphone and, in sheer exasperation, called upon the President to hold accountable those misusing the GROW project loans for selfish ends.
“The GROW project, initially designed to uplift women entrepreneurs by expanding their businesses from micro to small and small to medium enterprises, has instead become a tool for personal gain in the hands of those in power!,” Muhaye asserted. She went further to express fear for her life, a chilling indication of the high stakes involved in exposing corruption within this initiative.
At the heart of this controversy is none other than Uganda’s Minister of Gender, Labour, and Social Development, Honorable Betty Amongi. True to style, she loves to wrestle control away from her Permanent Secretaries, the statutory appointed accounting officers for Government projects, typically landing them in headlining controversy.
Examples are everywhere—NSSF, the Uganda Land Fund, the Jua Kali Project, the Youth Livelihood Fund, and several others that all seem to bleed and fester under her oversight. Reports have surfaced suggesting that she has slept on her her job in regards to the GROW project for her daring election campaign for Woman MP, Lira City.
It is apparent that a project meant to empower eligible women across Uganda has allegedly been turned into a personal political war chest, leaving thousands of deserving women sidelined.
Further complicating matters is the involvement of AROVA Reality Limited, a labor export and money lending company linked to Betty Amongi, reportedly managing GROW project funds in the Lango sub-region.
While the project’s administration is supposed to be transparent and accountable, its association with AROVA Reality raises serious concerns. One may even recall the November 15, 2023 discussion in Uganda’s Parliament of a letter from Honorable Betty Amongi instructing the allocation and repurposing of land meant for People with Disabilities in Lweza Makindye-Ssebagabo and its hand over to AROVA Reality under the guise of “constructing accommodation” for the GROW project, further adding to suspicions surrounding the misuse of the GROW Project for selfish ends.
Legislators within the government, including the Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Mohamed Muwanga Kivumbi, voiced concerns about the GROW project, stating that the Ministry of Gender had limited awareness and outreach, underutilized existing government structures, and made the project’s implementation ineffective. These concerns remain largely unaddressed, as political interference keeps the project shrouded in controversy.
It is evident that the GROW project is deliberately being kept in a state of dysfunction, allowing opportunistic politicians to exploit it as a campaign tool for exhibiting “economic temper.”
What makes this situation even more alarming is that it is tarnishing the reputation of the NRM government while benefiting politicians who are clearly conflicted, now claiming to belong to Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC). In essence, they are also deceiving genuine UPC supporters, treating them as if they are fools.
These same individuals, who thrive on NRM resources, are quick to run to the communities far removed from Kampala to accuse the ruling party of corruption and mismanagement—yet they are at the very core of these corrupt dealings.
The time has come for the relevant authorities to intervene decisively. If the GROW project is to truly serve its intended beneficiaries—women entrepreneurs across Uganda, including those in Lango—then it must be wrested from the grip of selfish political actors and restored to its rightful purpose.
Anything less would be a betrayal of the very women it was meant to uplift and a stain on the NRM government’s commitment to genuine empowerment and economic growth – a legacy that NRM’s 2026 campaign should surely ride on.
