In a bid to improve and extract expected minerals in Karamoja region, parliament has approved the borrowing of Shs83.7billion to implement the project “Airborne Geophysical Survey and Geological Mapping of Karamoja.
According to Minister of Finance David Bahati, the government is to borrow this money from the Corporate Internationalisation Fund of Spain.
“Government through the Energy Ministry is completing the mapping of Karamoja, leading to the production of maps of mineral resources endowments and we shall need to borrow some money,” he said during the plenary on Thursday.
However, Members of Parliament from Karamoja and Northern region also asked the government to first restore peace in the region before focusing on their interests of minerals.
In responding to their requests, the House also adopted the motion for a resolution of Parliament urging Government to take immediate steps to restore peace, security and stability in Karamoja Region with all its players.
Other members who agreed to the motion of borrowing was Woman MP for Koboko (NRM), Margaret Baba Diri.
She said, “I support the loan for Karamoja. Anything for Karamoja should be supported because it has been so behind. This exploration shall change the region.”
Micheal Mawanda of Igara East also supported the loan request but demanded that mineral explorations benefit mostly Karamoja residents.
“However much we have adopted this loan government should put to good use all the loans approved by this August house,” he said.
In the same space, Parliament also adopted the motion for a resolution of Parliament authorising Government to borrow Shs6.6trillion from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China purposely to finance the power supply of Industrial parks and grid upgrade plus power transmission Extension projects.
The request to borrow Shs6.6 trillion was presented by the chairman of Parliamentary Committee of National Economy Sydah Bumba on Wednesday and said that the above loan will be paid in the period of 11years with a maturity period of 15years.
Nevertheless currently, Uganda’s total public debt stock, as of the recent report on the state of the economy by Bank of Uganda, stands at Shs47 trillion or 43.2 per cent as the nominal value of the size of the economy as at June last year.
According Ministry of Finance the entire debt stock is 45.4 trillion ($12.5b) of which Shs30trillion ($8.3b) is domestic debt while Shs15 trillion ($4.2b) is and external debt.
Therefore with the two loans approved in this month total to Shs6.9trillion, Uganda’s external budget deepens.
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