Browsing: Foreign debts in Uganda

A three-day regional conference on debt management in sub-Saharan African convened in Uganda this week is expected to conclude into signing a paper to be presented at several forums.

The forums will include the next World Bank spring meeting to highlight governments’ discomfort with some conditions tied to loans.

Uganda’s Ministry of Finance acting director for debt and cash policy management, Maris Wanyera, said the conference will be attended by delegates from 16 countries, under the theme “sustainable public debt management and a strengthened economic growth”

She also said that in light of the ongoing borrowing frenzy by African countries to finance their development agenda, the conference is long overdue.

“The idea is to come up with a strategy; a voice we can use while negotiating some of these loans. Debt [borrowing] is not bad at all, as long as we borrow for the right purposes and negotiate well, but …

Uganda’s public debt has risen to $12.2 billion from June this year from about $9.4 billion in 2017, data from the Ministry of Finance shows.

With the rapid accumulation of debts, payment concerns have risen even as government economists tread between defiance and caution.

The national debt which was equivalent to 37 per cent of GDP in 2017, has now risen to 42 per cent of annual economic output.

The huge loans are intended to finance big infrastructure projects in the transport and energy sectors.
Total interest payment on the debt has risen from $2.6 billion in 2016/17 to $3.3 billion by the end of 2018/19.
The increased payments have been made worse by the diminished tax revenue growth and limited economic benefits linked to some infrastructure projects.

Despite a revenue surplus of $69.3 million recorded in 2018/19, the taxman posted revenue collection deficits for three preceding years in a …