Following public uproar after the COVID-19 fundraising committee formally wrote to all employed Ugandans requesting for Shs10,000 contribution to the COVID-19 fund, Chairman National Task Force Eng. Emmanuel Katongole has said that no single person will be forced to give.
Katongole said the Shs10,000 is voluntary and that is why the business owners the committee wrote to were carefully selected.
“We are just soliciting. What we are going through is a very difficult situation. We fully apologize to Ugandans who misinterpreted the message to think it was to be given forcefully. We shall hold another webinar to make this clear to the CEOs,” Katongole said.
He revealed that the fundraising is doing well due to the rapid response from Ugandans.
“We have been able to raise cash and physical items worth Shs28 billion. As we raise funds, our target is to support the health system in the country,” Katongole said.
“We have so far received two requests from the Ministry of Health. One includes building eight holding camps at border points, each border holding point will cost about Shs500 million. We realized that the fundraising curve had started flattening so we decided to call a meeting with the CEOs,” he added.