The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Hon Matia Kasaija has commended the African Development Bank for supporting Member Countries through the high-5 strategic priorities while supporting improving the quality of life.
This year’s annual meeting is taking place in Ghana under the theme “Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa” and attended by Governors who are Ministers of Finance of Member Countries who are sharing their experiences in addressing the climate change and energy transition challenges they face as well as the policy responses/measures they are employing to deal with them.
While speaking at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank which is going on in Accra in Ghana, Minister Kasaija hailed the Bank’s strategic plan of lighting up and powering, industrializing, feeding and integrating Africa.
Minister Kasaija noted that the Africa Development Bank strategy is in-line with Uganda’s National Development Plan III (NDPIII) and the current Parish Development Model being implemented in the country.
He said that African Development Bank support to these critical areas will play an active role in changing and transforming Africa’s Economies with sustainable inclusive growth.
“For over the years, the African Development Bank has been and remains one of Uganda’s important development partners and its support has helped in implementation of development programmes under the various Country Strategy Papers (CSPs),” Kasaija appreciated.
Africa Development Bank is currently supporting 20 on-going operations with 18 as public sector operations and 2 as private sector operations under the Uganda Development Bank Limited and these projects are spread in the Agriculture Development Program, Infrastructure, Water Resources, and Energy among others.
“Some of the projects currently supported include; Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement II (MATIIPII), Farm Income Enhancement and Forestry Conservation Project II, Agriculture Value Chain Development Program, Road Sector Project 4 which is Kigumba Masindi Road comprising of 135 Km, multinational Uganda/Rwanda Express Highway that starts at Busega -Mpigi and the Kapchorwa – Suam – Eldoret Bypass, Road Sector Project, Rukungiri-Ishasha Road, Kampala Jinja Expressway, Kampala Capital City Authority Roads and Rural Electricity Access among others,” Kasaija elaborated.
African Development Bank is also supporting new proposed projects that include refurbishment of Kampala – Malaba Meter Gauge Railway, Katuna – Muko – Kamuganguzi Road (104.0 km) Road Upgrading Project, Water Supply and Sanitation Programme Phase III (WSSP III), Multi-national 400 Kv Olwiyo (Uganda) – Juba (South Sudan) Power Interconnection Project, Lakes Edward & Albert Integrated Basin Management & Investment Project among others.
Minister Kasaija observed that key message coming out of this year’s Annual Meeting is the thirst and hunger by ADF Countries to have an amendment in the Articles of Establishment of the African Development Fund to be allowed to use the equity it has accumulated over the years to go to the capital markets to leverage more resources from the market for ADF countries.
The African Development Bank Group estimates that the US 25 billion of equity of the Bank can be used to leverage US 33 billion dollars in additional financing volumes for African Development Fund member countries.
This is on the backdrop that the African Development Fund has now made 50 years but the size of financing has remained the same and is rather relatively small compared to the growing financial needs of low-income and fragile states.
Uganda is a Member Country of ADB/ADF a multilateral institution whose shareholders comprise 53 African Countries and the Bank’s primary objective is to contribute to the sustainable economic development and social progress of its regional members, individually and jointly through Public Sector loans (including policy-based loans), private sector loans and equity investments, grants, technical assistance among others.
Uganda’s participation has been focused on pushing for more resources for infrastructure development and/ or interventions that will address the development challenges that have shaped the global outlook including a global climate crisis that has primarily impacted Africa.
They are also looking at #COVID-19 pandemic that continues to morph into new variants, and rising costs of food and energy, precipitated by the war in Ukraine.
