How Far Along is Lubowa Specialized Hospital?

The infrastructure development of the International Specialised Hospital of Uganda, commonly referred to as Lubowa hospital, is now at 68%, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija announced on Thursday as he delivered the Financial 2025/2026 budget speech.

The 1.4 trillion Shillings, 264-bed capacity hospital project launched in June 2019 was supposed to have been completed in June 2021, but its expected completion dates have since been shifted several times from October 2025 to now June 2026.  

In March, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng had updated members of parliament on the Health Committee  that the project would be concluded in June 2026 noting that construction was at 30 per cent at the time.

This project has been faced with controversy with sections of the public including members of parliament casting doubt on its importance or even existence especially after members of parliament were denied entry into the complex in one of their accountability visits. 

Earlier this year, in January, Aceng asked for a supplementary worth 1.5billion to enable close supervision and swift completion, sparking fresh debate on the hospital project being the most expensive. 

Meanwhile, apart from financing Lubowa, Kasaija announced on Thursday that government has continued infrastructure development of other facilities including building of two specialized centers for cancer and heart disease care.

Also, on health infrastructure development, he said they had completed, equipped and commissioned three Regional Blood Banks in Hoima, Arua, and Soroti and operationalised  16 high-capacity oxygen plants across key regional referral hospitals.

Meanwhile, generally, the health sector has been allocated a total of 5.87 trillion Shillings, accounting for about 6% of the national budget, with priority interventions being functionalizing of  Health Centre  IVs and scaling up of   National e-Health Infrastructure, among others.

However, while the health budget has been slightly increased, observers say Uganda has not yet prioritised health as the country still falls short of the Maputo declaration, where African Union member countries agreed to allocate 15 per cent of their national budgets to the health sector. 

This pledge, made in 2003, was aimed at improving health outcomes and addressing the high cost of healthcare.