Ugandans should brace themselves for tougher times as the country’s debt burden increasingly becomes heavier.
The country’s public debt is set to grow further as Government seeks Parliamentary approval to borrow UGX8.28 trillion.
The details are contained in the Order Paper that was issued by Parliament on 16th October 2025 ahead of the Monday 20th October 2025 plenary sitting. This comes ahead of the Parliamentary nominations scheduled for 22nd –23rd October 2025.
The five loans worth UGX8.28 trillion are set to be acquired from domestic and international lenders, meant for the construction of oil roads in Ntoroko district, roads in Jinja City and Kamuli district, and construction of transmission lines.
According to the breakdown provided, Government is proposing to borrow up to US$1,341Million (UGX4.68 trillion) from International Development Association of the World Bank Group and receive grants worth US$328.3Million (UGX1.14 trillion) to finance several projects including; Phase four of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF IV) and Phase two of the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP II).
The other projects under this loan include the Uganda Learning Acceleration Program (ULEARN); Uganda Cities and Municipalities Infrastructure Development (UCMID) Program and Uganda Strengthening Public Investment and Asset Management for Growth and Resilience Program (PIMPLUS).
Government also wants a proposal to borrow up to Euro192,959,605.47 (UGX789.15bn) from Citi Bank to finance the proposed phase I of the enhancing agricultural production, quality and standards for market access project.
Parliament will also consider the proposal to borrow up to Euro230,454,687.23 (UGX941.46bn) from Citi bank to finance the design and build of the Jinja-Mbulamuti-Kamuli-Bukungu Road (127km) and Jinja City roads (10km) project.
The other loan that is also expected to be considered by Parliament this week is the proposal to borrow up to Euro342,592,806.25 (UGX1.39 trillion) from Standard Chartered Bank for the construction of 400kv Karuma-Tororo double circuit transmission line and associated substations, and 132/33kv Ntinda substation project.
Parliament is also set to scrutinize Government’s proposal to borrow up to Euro 115,876,831 (UGX473.06bn) from Standard Chartered Bank to finance the critical oil roads package 6b (design and build upgrading of Karugutu-Ntoroko road (56.5km), link to Rwebisengo (8.2km) and 3.3km of town roads in Ntoroko) (68km).
The latest move by Parliament comes at the time the Annual Debt Statistical Bulletin and Public Debt Portfolio Analysis compiled by the Directorate of Debt and Cash Policy at Ministry of Finance revealed that Uganda’s debt as at June 2025 had grown to UGX116.2Trn, of which external debt amounted to UGX55.9 trillion (US$15.5 billion) while domestic debt rose to UGX60.3 trillion (US$16.8 billion), thus accounting for a 26.2% increase of debt acquired in a single year, up from US$25.6Bn (UGX 89.592Trn) recorded in June 2024.
The consideration of five loans in a sitting may not come as a surprise given Parliament’s earlier approval of the UGX72.376Trn 2025/26 national budget, after Government expressed intentions to borrow UGX32.075Trn which is equivalent to 44.3% of the national budget while UGX34.051Trn will be raised through tax revenue collections by Uganda Revenue Authority.
John Bosco Ikojo, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on National Economy, last week called for a meeting between the Committee and several Ministries to consider several loan proposals following a letter written by the Speaker, Anita Among to have the loans handled.
“On 14th October 2025, I received a communication from the office of the Speaker that Cabinet had considered a number of loan proposals and were referred to parliament. But now that Parliament is still on recess, she administratively decided to write to the chairperson of the committee for us to consider this loan request pending resumption of the house and we shall have to present to them. That is why I had to request the minister of finance to appear before this committee to make sure that at least officially receive all these loans and then we move on to scrutinize them pending for the resumption of the house…” Ikojo said.
