Reject calls to stop building new roads 

Officials of the National Planning Authority (NPA) on Wednesday misguided some members of the parliamentary Budget Committee into thinking that it makes sense for government to stop financing new road projects and use the money to resuscitate the economy that has been battered by Covid-19 pandemic.  
Asking government to stop building new roads when the country is in the race for a middle income status, is self-defeating, reckless and injudicious to economy NPA wants to give a kiss of life. 

Roads are needed to propel the country into middle-income. Roads will certainly strengthen the country’s competitiveness for sustainable wealth creation, employment, and inclusive growth.

Roads are the arteries through which the economy pulses. They link producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools, and the sick to hospitals. 
They affect all aspects of development in the country and businesses depend on effective roads for transporting goods, industry sector relies on roads for delivery of equipment.  

In fact, on page 6 of Uganda Vision 2040, a key document containing the development aspirations of our country, NPA acknowledges the need for more roads and draws attention to slow accumulation of modern infrastructure as one of the bottlenecks that have constrained socio-economic development. 

It reads: “Uganda has not accumulated a sufficient infrastructure base (roads, railway, energy and water) to lower the cost of doing business and compete favourably for Foreign Direct Investments.”

The decision to prioritise infrastructure in the budget; creation of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and Road Fund; was not inadvertent, it was cautious and well thought-out. As a country we have made some progress in infrastructure development but we are not yet there.
 
According to UNRA’s strategic plan (2020/2021-2024/2025), the country continues to develop the road infrastructure to improve transport connectivity, effectiveness, and efficiency to comparable levels of the developed countries. 

The target is to have an average of paved road density of 100km per 1,000 sq km. The government wants to develop highways connecting Uganda to the neighbouring countries and the major production centres within the country; and multi-lane expressways connecting major cities, exit ports and economic zones. 

Our view is that we don’t need to stop building new roads in order to just prop lagging sectors of the economy. We just need the right priorities. Establish a debt ceiling and ensure accountability of every shilling in the budget.

Let’s prioritise the available resources, punish thieves and stop financial indiscipline of some accounting officers. This approach avoids fundamental mistakes and kills two birds with one stone.