On your way to Bukedea, you can think that other plants apart from maize are prohibited in the region, this is due to the presence of large plantations of maize along the road.

Maize crop serves both the subsidiary and cash crop purposes, however, a big number of people in Bukedea still grow on a subsidiary level.

Moses Elungati, a born of Bukedea district worked with Barclays Bank now Absa for 33 years and opted for retirement at the age of 55 years. His NSSF benefits that were UGX200M were withdrawn in a short period of time after processing. “I first made enough coaching and stakeholder consultation in the maize milling industry which equipped me with skills and determination to establish the maize milling plant and it was during this benchmarking period that I realized that Bukedea was the right area for this kind of investment due to increasing demand,” Moses Elungati said.

Before the establishment of this Maize milling plant, people would move with their maize for milling as far as Kumi town which was very far and costly. Now the community members are benefiting from lower prices of milling quality posho without having to walk long distances in search of a maize milling plant.

Moses Elungati attributes all this success in the region to the NSSF because according to him, his benefits came at the time when he needed it most and it has uplifted the standards of living of people in his community which was his intended vision at the time of withdrawal. “I receive 100_300kg of maize every day for milling and these are not only from our community but also people from areas like Kumi, Kachumbala, and Soroti and this is due to the unique service by our sophisticated maize milling machine,” Junior Ikala, the machine attendant said.

Being a heavy machine in a remote area like Bukedea, there is a challenge of power. The machine consumes a lot of power that makes its operations very expensive to maintain. Despite this challenge, Mr. Elungati identified this power problem and a purchased a powerful transformer that can support all the operational activities at once.

Price fluctuation has also been another pressing challenge to Elungati’s maize milling business because unstable prices make it arduous to work within the budget framework of a certain season. “Despite the existing challenges, this maize milling machine, however, in its infancy stages, it has been able to register success stories and these are best told by the community members who have directly benefitted from it,” Mr. Elungati said.

Mr. Eluganti says that many people after receiving their NSSF benefits tend to invest it in the urban centers but for him he opted for his village because there was demand for the service and according to him, this village investment that has brought quality services to the people in Bukedea is the reason that makes him stand out among all the other contestants in the NSSF Friends with benefits competition.

Mr. Elungati who is optimistic about winning the ultimate prize money in the NSSF friends with benefits intends to use the money to purchase a rice milling machine. This idea came after he had done a study and found out that many people in areas of Kumi, Soroti Bukedea and neighbors have resorted to rice farming and therefore in the future, there will be a need for a rice milling machine in the region.

As a person who got his benefits at the required age, an experienced Banker, Mr.Elungati says that it’s better for someone to withdraw his or her money at the age of 55years justifying that at this age, one has accumulated a reasonable amount of
savings that can be able to endure one's retirement.

To vote for Mr. Moses Elungati in the NSSF Friends with Benefits competition,
dial *254# or go to www.nssfug.org.