Browsing: Uganda

• For millions of households in Uganda, remittances play a vital role in safeguarding food security, healthcare, savings and investment opportunities. 
• IFAD data shows 75% of money sent to Uganda is used to fight poverty and improve access to nutrition, health, housing and education. 
• The remaining 25 percent is used to support small businesses and facilitate access to financial products. 

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has partnered with Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU) in a plan to reduce the cost incurred by Ugandans sending money back home by half through a digital payment platform dubbed FlexiPay. 

The partnership will also provide remittance recipients, especially in rural areas, with digital and financial training to promote the savings culture and foster digital finance uptake among these communities.

Cost of remittances in Uganda

At the moment, the average cost of sending money back home for Uganda’s migrant workers is 11.3 per cent, …

On the 1st of June 2023, African ministers for trade and industries adopted a protocol that prevents trading second-hand clothes across the continent under the preferences of the AfCFTA. This was during the high-level African Union – East African Community and the private sector forum, the second Ministerial Retreat of the Council of Ministers on the AfCFTA, held in Nairobi, Kenya, to assess the progress and address critical aspects of the agreement’s implementation.…

• Locals around Lake Albert alarmed by oil companies neglecting the essential rituals needed to preserve these places’ sanctity.
• TotalEnergies is encountering legal challenges and criticism for its environmental impact, including contributions to climate change.
• A key part of this effort is the $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline. While it could bring economic gains and regional energy integration, it has climate and environmental concerns.

In a region where oil activities are expanding into sacred natural sites, a small Ugandan community is grappling with the encroachment on their spiritual spaces. According to AP, Alex Wakitinti, the chief custodian of these revered sites near Lake Albert, is concerned about the disregard shown by oil companies, including French giant TotalEnergies, for the significance of these locations. These sites are vital to the cultural and spiritual practices of the Bagungu community in the remote Buliisa district, adjacent to the Congo border.

Wakitinti …

• The World Bank Group has suspended new loans to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
• Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law, with its provisions carrying the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” is sparking global concern.
• The World Bank provided $5.4 billion in International Development Association financing to Uganda by the end of 2022.

In a significant move, the World Bank announced on Tuesday its decision to suspend new lending to the Ugandan government. This decision comes in response to the Ugandan government’s enactment of an anti-LGBTQ law. The law is still garnering widespread condemnation from numerous countries and international organizations, including the United Nations. The bank’s stance is rooted in the belief that this law directly contradicts its core values and principles.

The World Bank’s social standards

Promptly after the anti-LGBTQ law was implemented in May, a World Bank team embarked on a fact-finding mission to Uganda. The team’s assessment concluded …

• In Kenya, political protests accelerated the downturn, leading to a sharp dip in output that was the fastest since August last year.
• Forex woes and reports of rising fuel prices and taxes equally pushed up business costs in July.
• In Uganda, data shows output and new orders are edging up steadily on a monthly basis in the past one year.

Kenya’s private sector activity suffered a further drop in demand at the start of the third quarter of the year, latest statistics show, as customers continued to limit spending amid steep inflation. Kenya’s poor data came even as neighbouring Uganda recorded improvements in the health of the its private sector activity. Uganda is experiencing a stronger demand environment despite facing challenges in the macro environment.

In Kenya, political protests accelerated the downturn, according to surveyed firms. This resulted in a sharp contraction in output that was the fastest since August …

• Uganda Auditor-General says out of $27.7 million meant for SACCOs under the Emyooga programme only $21.8 million was disbursed.
• Lawmakers say failure of Microfinance Support Centre staff to follow due diligence in loan disbursement was indicative of incompetence.
• Parliament tasks MSC officials to detail the efforts put in place to ensure that the intended beneficiaries receive the funding.

A report by the Auditor-General has revealed that Uganda’s Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) failed to absorb a total of $5.87 million (USh21.2 billion) of the Emyooga grant during the 2021/22 financial year.

In his report to Parliament, the Auditor-General observed that out of $27.7 million meant for SACCOs under the Emyooga programme, only $21.8 million was disbursed.

In a meeting on July 25, with officials from the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC), legislators on the Public Accounts Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) queried the way the funds were used.…

• Kenya and Uganda agree to add 2,746 kilometers to the SGR, increasing overall cost of the project to over $19.4 billion.
• SGR extension is part of the larger $24.1 billion Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) plan.
• Uganda will extend the SGR to its border with Rwanda, South Sudan, and the DRC.

Kenya and Uganda have jointly signed a communique on SGR extension financing, paving the way for an ambitious infrastructure project connecting the two economies. The initiative will guide the development of two significant railway projects, the Naivasha-Kisumu-Malaba and the Malaba-Kampala Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) links. Once the SGR extension financing is secured, the projects will be implemented in the respective countries.

The deal was formalized with the presence of Kenya’s Transport minister Kipchumba Murkomen and his Ugandan counterpart Edward Katumba-Wamala.

While Kenya has already signed commercial contracts for its SGR sections, Uganda is on track to finalize the …

• During the last quarter of 2022, the EAC hit an intra-trade value of $10.17 billion. This was a 20% proportion of intra-trade to world commerce.
• The revision of the EAC three-band structure aims at aligning the tariff rates.
• On July 1, 2022, the EAC enforced a new tariff structure that included a 35 percent duty on finished products imported into the region. 

The East African Community’s $18.9 million trade plan is facing obstacles as partner states seek preferential tax treatment under the bloc’s revised Common External Tariffs (CET).

This development is threatening to jeopardize the implementation of the proposed four-band tariff structure. On July 1, 2022, the EAC Secretariat enforced a new tariff structure that included a 35 percent duty on finished products imported into the region.

The secretariat, in a report from January 2022, highlighted the potential benefits of the fourth band, arguing that a maximum tariff of 35 …

• President Yoweri Museveni is optimistic that Uganda’s oil revenue will finance mega roads, railways and other infrastructure projects.
• Uganda expects to ship the first consignment of oil in 2025.
• The government will hasten the acquisition of the right of way for the construction of Standard Gauge Railway. 

Uganda’s oil revenues will finance roads and railway among other key infrastructure projects to revamp the country’s productivity. 

Uganda has significant oil reserves, particularly in the Albertine Graben region, which is located in the western part of the country.

The country discovered commercially viable oil deposits in 2006, and since then, exploration and development activities have been ongoing. According to estimates, Uganda’s discovered oil reserves are around 6.5 billion barrels. These reserves consist of both crude oil and condensates.

There have been efforts to establish a legal and regulatory framework to govern the sector and ensure transparency, environmental sustainability, and equitable distribution …

• A rising number of informal women traders in border towns are resorting to corruption to survive.
• Corruption, harassment, and sexual bribes is threatening the success of enterprise between African economies.
• The World Bank estimates small-scale cross-border trade provides income to 43 percent people in Africa.

Small-scale trade remains vital in securing livelihoods in East Africa, but rampant cross-border corruption is posing a serious threat to a vital cog in this enterprise—thousands of informal women traders.

This is unlike during pre-colonial period when African communities used to travel long distances, crossing today’s “borders” to barter their goods with traders from a different ethnic group.

Why informal women traders resort to corruption

Today, enterprising communities—mostly informal women traders—at border towns resort to corruption to survive, the World Bank explains. Quite often, official border posts are marred with service delays and congestion, the perfect fodder for cross-border corruption.

With suppressed cross-border trade …