Uganda to benefit from $8b loan
A young girl gives a helping hand as her sister fastens a jerrycan of water on a bicycle in Mayuge District recently. The loan facility is intended to address issues of water scarcity among other things. PHOTO BY Yazid Yolisigira
What you need to know:
Timely. A number of sectors will be funded to help the region break out of conflict
Kampala.
Leaders of the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank and European Union have pledged financial assistance of more than Shs21 trillion ($8 billion) to eight African countries in the Horn of Africa, including Uganda.
The financial assistance announced Monday by the officials meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, will go to political support, education, employment creation, health care and access to clean water in the coming years.
The World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, in a statement, said: “There is greater opportunity now for the Horn of Africa to break free from its cycles of drought, food and water insecurity, and conflict by building up regional security, generating a peace dividend, especially among young women and men, and spurring more cross-border cooperation.”
Other countries set to benefit from the assistance include, crisis-laden South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The European Union, according to the statement, also committed another shs9 trillion ($3.7 billion) until the year 2020 to the region for cross-border activities.
Officials of the development agencies to the region were led by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, who hailed countries in the region for making “important yet unheralded” progress in economic growth and stability.
“Now is a crucial moment to support those efforts, end the cycles of conflict and poverty, and move from fragility to sustainability,” Mr Ki-Moon noted.
The African Development Bank pledged Shs9 trillion ($1.8 billion) over the next three years for countries in the region while the Islamic Development Bank committed to deploy up to Shs2.6 trillion ($1 billion) in new financing to Uganda, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan.
Loan confirmed
In Kampala, the World Bank Communications Associate, Ms Sheila Gashishiri, confirmed the development and added that the assistance would go to the specific areas highlighted.
The bank indicated that its new package will supplement its existing programmes to create prosperity for vulnerable people—notably the 2.7 million refugees and over 6 million internally displaced persons in the region.
Key areas to fund
• Education
• Job creation
• Political support
• Healthcare
• Access to clean water
• Food security
