By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
The Ministry of Finance is seeking Parliamentary approval to borrow Shs953,930,310,259 from both the domestic and external market to finance the extension of water in various towns, as well as rehabilitate Bugiri General Hospital.
The details are contained in the Order Paper sent out last week indicating the items to be handled during today’s plenary sitting. This comes just less than a week to the end of Financial Year 2024/25.
According to the Order Paper, Government intends to borrow Euro183,309,847.16 (Shs761.343Bn) from Standard Chartered Bank and Shs120,395,249,259 from the domestic market (6-month treasury bill) for financing the strategic towns water supply and sanitation project – phaseII.
Additionally, the Ministry of Finance is expected to table a proposal to borrow up to US$20 million (Shs72,191,081,000) from the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa (BADEA) to finance the rehabilitation, expansion and equipping of Bugiri General hospital.
The development comes at the time when details were extracted from the available Hansard, the Official Report of the Proceedings of Parliament of Uganda, revealed that between January to May 2025, Parliament approved loans worth UGX5.619Trn, amidst concerns of the increasing Public Debt recorded at UGX106.22Trn and over UGX16.402Trn undisbursed loans that are attracting interest payment as at December 2024.
It should be noted that while delivering the budget speech for FY 2025/2026 at Kololo Independence Grounds on Thursday 12th June 2025, Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, said the stock of Uganda’s public debt is projected to increase to USD 31.5 billion, equivalent to Shs116 trillion, by end June 2025.
Of the USD 31.5 billion, external debt accounts for USD 15.49 billion, equivalent to Shs 56.3 trillion, and domestic debt USD 16 billion, equivalent to Shs 59.77 trillion.
