World Bank to Lend Uganda $1.9 Billion Over Next Three Years
World Bank Plans $1.9 Billion Three-Year Loan Package for Uganda
The World Bank plans to lend Uganda $1.9 billion for three fiscal years through 2023 to help finance the East African nation’s budget deficit.
The concessional loans for three fiscal years starting July 1 are a 46% increase from $1.3 billion in aid for the previous three-year package, the lender’s Uganda country manager, Tony Thompson, told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Kampala.
The amount is still under discussion and the bank “would like to disburse $500 million to $600 million in the next financial year,” he said. The money will be spent on road and energy projects, and on the health, education, agriculture and water sectors, Thompson said.
While Uganda plans to cut its budget by about 2% to 39.5 trillion shillings ($10.8 billion) in 2020-21, its fiscal deficit may climb to 10.4 trillion shillings from 8.8 trillion shillings in 2019-20, according to the Finance Ministry.
Uganda’s public debt was $12.6 billion in June, with multilateral lenders -- chiefly the World Bank’s International Development Association -- accounting for 65%, according to the ministry.
East Africa’s third-biggest economy may see output slowing to 6% in 2019-20 from an earlier projection of 6.3% following delays in the start of oil production, according to the International Monetary Fund. Uganda has deferred production targets of its 1.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil to 2022-23.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Jacqueline Mackenzie
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