Work on Muyembe–Nakapiripirit road expected to start next year

Motoring from Kampala to Mbale, 250 kilometres east of Kampala, takes three hours while driving from Muyembe to Nakapiripirit, 92 kilometres northeast of Muyembe, consumes five hours.
While the Kampala–Mbale road is smooth, the dirt road from Muyembe to Nakapiripirit generates vibrations and bounce in vehicles.

During a trip to the area in 2016, the commuter minibus this reporter was travelling in broke down, and burdened the owner with high operating costs and losses.

Now, the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) says it is on course procuring a contractor to tarmac the Muyembe-Nakapiripirit road.

Mr Allan Ssempebwa Kyobe, UNRA’s media relations manager, says the process should be finalised by early next year and construction should start thereafter. Construction will last for at least three years after the commencement of works.
Mr Kyobe says UNRA has acquired 90 per cent of the right of way (access to land for the road) and is verifying the remaining 10 per cent.

Funding
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will lend Uganda $110 million (Shs411 billion at today’s exchange rate) towards the construction of the road while Uganda will contribute $18 million (Shs67 billion) in counterpart funding, of which $5 million (18 billion) will be for land compensation.

In total, IDB will finance the upgrading for the road at a capital cost of $114.12 million (Shs427 billion) and sell the asset to Uganda at $163.88 million (Shs613 billion), money Uganda will have to repay over 15 years, says a report of the House Committee on National Economy.

That, the report says, will require that the road starts generating revenue for the government within a period of not more than five years as provided for in the Public Debt Management Framework, 2013.
There is no cause for worry though.

“Based on the feasibility study that was done in March 2013, the project is technically feasible and economically viable with an expected Economic Internal Rate of Return of 13.8 per cent, which is well above 12 per cent economic viability of projects based on a design life of 20 years and an analysis period of 30 years,” the report says.

Stakeholders in the tourism sector are looking forward to the tarmacking of the road. Mr Bashir Hangi, the communications manager of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), says it is exciting.

“For us, UWA, that is good news because one of the challenges we have is poor roads to tourism sites. Even local tourists, when they think it will rain and as a result they will run into some problem, they have second thoughts and end up not travelling,” Mr Hangi says.

“If people get stuck on the road, they do not give us good ratings [yet] we want good ratings. So we are excited with the news and are looking forward to seeing work start.

Pian Upe Game Reserve, which straddles the highway, is home to ostriches, topi, hartebeest, eland, zebra, leopard, lion, buffalo, giraffe, bright’s gazelle.

The reserve, Mr Hangi says, is popular for sport hunting and part of the proceeds from those who engage in such hunting go to the local communities.

It is not clear how many tourists visit Pian Upe Game Reserve annually. Still, being a game reserve, it is likely they are fewer than those who go to national game parks.

When the road is tarmacked, many vehicles than before could regularly use it.
“We expect traffic to increase by 6.5 per cent annually because of a better road,” says Mr Kyobe.

According to a 2013 study, the daily average vehicular traffic using the road at the time was 307 vehicles.
Of those, 47 were medium goods vehicles, 194 were light to medium goods vehicles, 47 were motorcycles while 13 were trailers and heavy trucks and six were light transport vehicles.

The road will reduce travel time between Karamoja and much of Uganda.
“The current travel time [from Muyembe to Nakapiripirit and vice versa] is five hours. With the tarmacking of the road, the travel time will reduce to three hours,” adds Mr Kyobe.

Still on the contribution of a tarred road to the economy of the region, a tarmacked road will boost trade between the rest of Uganda and Karamoja since a major bottleneck will have been removed.

Already there is trade going on, with items such as cassava, an arrowroot, beans, groundnuts, fruit and maize moving from Bugisu to Karamoja and from Karamoja charcoal, sesame and marble.

Once construction works commence, the contractor is likely to hire locals to work on different stretches of the highway, thus putting money in the pockets of many would be dejected jobless Ugandans.

At this stage though, it is not clear to tell how many jobs will be created during the construction phase of the road.
Through Amudat District, the road could serve as another route to travel between Uganda and Kenya.
For long distance cross-border transporters based in western Kenya, this would be a shorter route between western Kenya and Turkana plus northern Uganda.

However, according to the Finance ministry document mentioned earlier, the loan from IDB will increase Uganda’s external debt exposure.

The documents says the debt currently stands at $10.5 billion – Shs39 trillion – (outstanding total public debt, including publicly guaranteed debt) as at the end of March 2018.

Repayment period
In total, IDB will finance the upgrading for the road at a capital cost of $114.12 million (Shs427 billion) and sell the asset to Uganda at $163.88 million (Shs613 billion), money Uganda will have to repay over 15 years, says a report of the House Committee on National Economy.