KAMPALA — Finance minister Matia Kasaija strikes a tone of optimism, underlining that Uganda’s economic outlook is positive.
“The coronavirus pandemic has helped us to once again demonstrate the economic capacity and the vast opportunities that our country has. The budget for the financial year 2020/21 will support the economy to fully recover, harness the potential that we have, and get back to our progressive journey of double digit GDP growth rate,” he says.
“I call upon Ugandans to ensure they keep safe by particularly following the directives from His Excellency the President and Ministry of Health regarding CoVID-19. The challenge of CoVID-19 will go, and the economy will pick up once again even at a much higher speed.”
He underlines that the resource envelope of 2020/21 is UGX. 45.493 trillion, of which domestic resources amount to UGX. 25.585 trillion.
Domestic financing amounts to UGX.3.560 trillion.
External financing consists of Project Support of UGX. 9.515 trillion and General Budget Support UGX.2.906.7 trillion. Domestic re-financing amounts to UGX.7.486 trillion and Appropriation in Aid is UGX. 215.6b.
The minister adds that total expenditure amounts to UGX.37.792 trillion of which recurrent expenditure is UGX.19.787 trillion and development expenditure is UGX.18.004 trillion.
“Sector allocations can be found in the Budget as approved by Parliament,” says Kasaija.
On public debt, we learn that Uganda’s total public debt as at December 2019 amounted to $13.3b, with external debt accounting for $8.59b or 64.4% while domestic debt amounted to $4.74b or 35.6% of total debt stock.
“To ensure that public debt remains sustainable, we will implement the Domestic Revenue Mobilization Strategy to increase Government’s capacity to finance programs with less reliance on domestic and external borrowing,” says Kasaija.
“In response to the coronavirus crisis, Government has commenced negotiations with some creditors for debt relief. This will free resources to finance interventions in the fight against the pandemic.”