Kampala — Parliament is sitting today to consider another massive debt package over $2.9 billion (UGX 11 trillion) adding to Uganda’s already ballooning public debt as critics warn that the country is sliding deeper into a cycle of borrowing to sustain a corrupt and inefficient system.
According to documents before Parliament, the government seeks approval for USD 1.34 billion in loans and USD 328 million in grants from the World Bank, €192.9 million from Citi Bank for agriculture-related projects, €230.4 million for the Jinja–Kamuli–Bukung road, €342.5 million for the Karuma–Tororo power line, and €115.8 million for the construction of “critical oil roads.”
While government insists the loans will finance infrastructure and productivity-enhancing projects, opposition MPs and civil society actors have decried the continued appetite for borrowing, calling it “economic recklessness masked as development.”
Uganda’s public debt now stands at nearly UGX 96 trillion, up from just UGX 29 trillion in 2016, with interest payments consuming a growing share of the national budget. This means more of every tax shilling goes toward debt servicing than to health, education, or youth employment.
Economists warn that while concessional borrowing can spur growth if well-managed, Uganda’s pattern of project-linked loans—often riddled with inflated costs, delays, and corruption poses serious risks to fiscal stability.
“What we are witnessing is not investment but mortgaging of our children’s future,” one MP lamented ahead of today’s sitting. “We keep borrowing in the name of development, but most of it ends up in the pockets of a few.”
