Ugee

$200m (sh334b) loan from the World Bank to finance its poverty reduction programme.

The deputy secretary to the Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi, said the funds were meant for roads, water, agriculture, health and free primary and secondary education. The money is a reduction from previous years. Uganda used to receive $150m a year for its anti-poverty plan.

According to the World Bank, the reduction was in response to the Government’s recurring overspending on public administration and defence.

However, the bank praised Uganda for maintaining sound macro-economic management in spite of the power crisis, exchange rate fluctuations and large spending pressures.

It also hailed Uganda for bringing down the number of households living in poverty from 38% to 31.5%. It attributed this to the progress in implementing the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), as well as the price recovery of Uganda’s key export products.

With the new loan, the World Bank said, it wants to support the Government in delivering better services and creating a better environment for growth and further poverty reduction.

 “This operation is focusing on improving the capacity of the public sector to deliver services, building public infrastructure assets, improving accountability, and facilitating the growth of the private sector through better prioritization and stronger focus on results,” explained Young Chul Kim, the senior country economist for Uganda.

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