Health Sector Lost Ugx 604Bn Following Trump Aid Cuts

The Minister of Health, Dr. Ruth Aceng has revealed that the decision by the US Government to cut foreign aid across the world, resulted in Uganda losing funding worth Shs604Bn.

Most of this funding was meant for HIV/AIDs, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Nutrition services and payment of salaries. She urged Parliament to source for funds to ensure that Uganda’s health sector is self-reliant to end reliance on foreign aid.  

She made the appeal while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee where she had appeared to defend the 2025/26 Ministerial Policy Statement for the health sector, where she detailed the affected projects and actions that Government has taken to fill the gap left by the US funding cuts.

According to Dr. Aceng, the HIV/AIDS programme suffered the most loss of Shs243.2Bn, followed by the Malaria control programme that lost funding to a tune of Shs121Bn, while the Support for human resources for health incurred a loss of Shs67.8Bn.

The other projects to suffer funding cuts included the TB programme whose loss was to a tune of Shs60.2Bn, while the Health information systems suffered loss of Shs36.9Bn, followed by Healthcare waste management programme whose loss was recorded at Shs22.2Bn, while Uganda’s health Laboratory systems also recorded aid loss of Shs35.4Bn. 

Additionally, the US aid cut also cost Uganda’s Nutrition services aid worth Shs16.5Bn and the neglected tropical diseases also witnessed a loss of Shs780Million.

During her presentation, Minister Aceng also revealed that in the coming 2025/26 National Budget, most of the infrastructural projects are going to be externally funded to a tune of Shs1.370Trn, a challenge she says can be mitigated through the passing of National Health Insurance Scheme that would generate additional revenue for the health sector.