Toll fees for Expressway:  Let’s not steal the money

Last week, the Ministry of Works and Transport revealed that notorists will start paying road toll fees for Entebbe Expressway in July.
The four-lane road is one of the major infrastructure projects undertaken by the government in a bid to get the economy to another level.
Like the hydro-power dams and developments in the mineral sector, the cost of building the road was undertaken through a loan.

In 2012, the expressway was estimated to cost US$476 million (Shs1.19 trillion). Of this, US$350 million (Shs875 billion) is a loan from the Exim Bank of China at 2 percent annual interest.
The road is in line with government’s preference to undertake more Public-Private Partnerships in order to lessen the cost burden.

In the plan, government was supposed to collect road toll fees from motorists to service the debt but the public has used the road for several years without paying a penny.
In the meantime, the creditors expect Uganda to pay. In the midst of the debt crisis that has seen each Ugandan accumulate Shs1.5m in debts taken by government, we can ill-afford delays in payments.
There are so many projects for which loans are acquired. In some, government starts repayment without spending the money for which the loan was sought.

Economists will often argue that our absorption capacity is low and that makes it hard to spend every penny government negotiates for.
That, however cannot explain our inability to collect fees that would essentially ease the country’s debt burden.
Developed and maintained by the Uganda National Road Authority, the Entebbe Expressway was the first ever toll road in the country upon completion in 2017.

Fees collection should have commenced soon after. That it didn’t implies that government is four years in arrears.
Previously, the minister has explained that there wasn’t a law in place to allow government collect these kind of fees. 
Also, we hope that the money will not be misused since we need to offset a loan at a time Ugandans are being over taxed to repay other loans.
This is the kind of efficiency that will enable the country beat the looming debt trap.

To government, this road is the jewel in the crown of an infrastructure programme that will boost economic growth. The  expressway has trimmed the painful two-hour trip between Kampala city centre and Entebbe International Airport to 30 minutes. 
There was always supposed to be a cost to this.
It’s that cost that government should always be concerned about since there’s often a loan to be repaid.