Hilary Onek, Minister of Refugees and Disaster Preparedness
The Uganda Government is considering borrowing US$280 Million (Shs1.059Trn) from the World Bank to support refugees living in Uganda.
The revelation was made by Hilary Onek, Minister of Refugees and Disaster Preparedness while appearing before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee where he informed lawmakers that Uganda is currently hosting 1,568,237 refugees from 33 countries but these efforts are being hampered by the limited funding for service delivery to the refugees.
“We are now negotiating with the World Bank for more money, US$280M (Shs1.059Trn) to go again to those districts this time around, to enforce on whatever we have done and in the next project we shall expand to cover transit districts for refugees like Bundibugyo, Amuru, Kisoro, Kitgum. We want to ensure that the services there can meet the demand of the kind of population that is coming,” the Minister said.
It should be recalled that in 2021, Parliament approved a loan worth US$150M (Shs568.652Bn) to build infrastructure in refugee hosting communities.
Asked by MPs what benefit will accrue to Uganda for securing a loan for refugees, Minister Onek said that this latest loan if approved will serve the transit districts where refugee pass as they move to access the 13 refugee settlements being managed by the Office of the Prime Minister.
“We continue to do developments in the districts to the extent that if you go to those districts, you will find new infrastructure like schools, health centres, bridges, even roads which is more than other districts hosting refugees. You go to those other districts which aren’t having refugees, there is nothing new,” said Onek.
Minister Onek also informed the Committee that Uganda invests an estimated US$1.3Bn about Shs4.9Trn both directly and indirectly into refugee response annually, and this money goes towards social infrastructure like health, education facilities, security, staffing and environmental degradation through firewood use.
