World Bank to More than Double Loan Stock to Uganda

‎The World Bank Group intends to lend Uganda some 2 billion dollars (7.5 trillion shillings) in each of the three cycles over the next 10 years, according to the Bank’s new Country Partnership Framework CPF).

‎This adds to the existing 4.05 billion dollars (15.26 trillion shillings). This CPF will run from 2026 to 2035, and aligns with the country’s Fourth National Development Plan, the Vision 2040 and the Tenfold Growth Strategy.

‎‎It is designed to accelerate a private sector-led economic transformation and expand opportunities for the country’s rapidly growing population, with major emphasis on job creation, especially for the big youthful population.

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‎”Uganda has extraordinary assets: a young population full of potential, abundant natural resources, and a government committed to long-term transformation,” says Francisca Ayodeji (Ayo) Akala, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda.

‎‎The Group will also intensify efforts to mobilize private capital to support Uganda’s development.‎

‎Businesses in Uganda face high costs and limited access to affordable, long-term finance, reflecting elevated risk perceptions, stringent collateral requirements, shallow capital markets, and broader economic and governance constraints.‎

‎The country has in recent years realised some of the largest volumes of foreign direct investments in the region, growing to 6 percent of GDP in 2025. However, a big chunk of it has been going to the oil and gas sector, leaving private investment in the wider economy constrained, according to the World Bank Group (WBG).

‎‎This adds to the already squeezed private sector lending by banks, but through a sequenced “One WBG approach”, the CPF aims to unlock private capital at-scale.‎

‎Reforms supported by the WBG’s International Development Association (IDA) will help contain public domestic borrowing, strengthen macro-fiscal credibility, and ease interest rate pressures, a statement in the CPF says.

‎Over the next decade, the WBG’s key targets will include doubling energy access to reach 50 million people by 2035, up from 25 million today, under the Mission 300 initiative, where it will invest in efforts to expand electricity access ‎for households and productive purposes by upgrading distribution and transmission.

‎‎Others include providing 22 million people with quality health, nutrition, and population services; and supporting 10 million students with better education and skills.‎

‎Others are; improving transport infrastructure to benefit 20 million people; extending access to financial services to 14 million people and businesses, including 9 million women; and a 100 percent increase in agricultural yields in targeted value chains.

‎‎However, the Bank notes that the overall risk to achieving CPF outcomes is substantial, including institutional capacity for implementation ‎and sustainability risks that stem from weaknesses in public institutions, public procurement, and systems.

‎‎The Bank says that these are mitigated through capacity assessments and activities tailored to address gaps.

‎WBG notes that over the last 15 years, the size of the economy has almost doubled, life expectancy has increased by almost five years, and internet use has doubled. However, the lack of good jobs is reflected in weak poverty reduction, with about 500,000 people moving out of poverty based on the national poverty line.