The stock of Uganda’s public debt has grown to US$34.86 billion (UGX130.844Trn) by the end of December 2025, up from US$34.21 billion (UGX128.648Trn) in September 2025.
This revelation is contained in Ministry of Finance’s Quarterly Debt Statistical Bulletin and Public Debt Portfolio Analysis for December 2025, that was published on the Ministry’s website last week.
“The total public debt stock increased to US$34.86Billion (UGX130.94Trn) by the end of December 2025, up from US$34.21Billion (UGX128.64Trn) at the end of September 2025. Domestic debt accounted for 54.5% of this total debt equivalent to US$ 19.02 billion or UGX 68.86 trillion, while external debt made up 45.3% equivalent to US$15.84 billion or UGX57.33 trillion. This quarterly increase stemmed majorly from increased domestic debt issuances,” the report reads in part.
In the period under review, the Ministry says Uganda’s expenditure on domestic debt service decreased by UGX916Bn to UGX 2.997Trn. This was down from UGX 3.913Trn recorded at the end of September 2025.
The report further reveals that Uganda’s undisbursed debt increased from US$3.36Billion (UGX12.606Trn) in September 2025 to US$3.74Bn (UGX14.032Trn) by the end of December 2025.
“Over the quarter, undisbursed debt from private and multilateral creditors increased from US$0.02 billion to US$0.14 billion, and from USD 2.64 billion to USD 2.99 billion respectively while those from bilateral creditors declined from USD 0.71 billion to USD 0.61 billion. This quarterly rise in undisbursed external debt stems from new loans recorded within the quarter, including the Education in Biomedical Sciences loan from ADF, a Line of Credit for trade finance from BADEA, the Resilient Livestock loan from IFAD, and the 4th Line of credit to UDBL loan from OPEC Fund, among others,” the report reads.
Uganda’s biggest creditors
The Ministry of Finance revealed that multilateral creditors, hold 65.13% of Uganda’s external debt stock equivalent to US$10.32 billion of external debt. “The major multilateral creditors; International Development Association (IDA), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Fund (AfDF) collectively hold the largest share of Uganda’s external debt stock, equivalent to 54.7% of the external debt portfolio. Among bilateral creditors, Exim Bank of China and UKEF are the largest, holding USD 2.1 billion and USD 0.39 billion, respectively. For private creditors, Stanbic Bank leads with a holding of USD 0.82 billion during the same period,” the report says.
As at December 2025, the report adds, the largest share of external debt stock was denominated in USD currency which stood at 46% amounting to USD 7.28 billion, followed by EURO at 35% equivalent to USD 5.53 billion. The share of CNY denominated external debt stock stood at 8% amounting to USD 1.31 Billion followed by JPY at 6% equivalent to USD 0.86 Billion.
The Ministry of Finance further revealed that the second quarter of FY2025/26 registered an increase in total external debt service where US$416.62 Million (UGX1.563Trn) was spent on external debt repayment from US$381.52 million in the previous quarter, with the increment attributed to the increased principal and fees payments during the period.
