By Watchdog reporter
President Yoweri Museveni has written to the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga directing that all government loans must get his “personal approval” before they are tabled in Parliament.
In the letter tabled in the House on Wednesday, Museveni also directed that 11 government loans that are before Parliament be rejected on grounds that they do not add value to the economy.
Museveni ordered that only 16 loan requests be approved, explaining that only infrastructural development in the health and education sectors be funded by loans.
Some of the loan requests the President directed be rejected include; a $200m loan for the construction of the Kampala-Jinja Expressway, a $100m loan from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for poverty reduction, and a $200m loan for fiscal transfers and management.
On the loan for the Kampala-Jinja Expressway, Museveni said the money should be recovered from the road tolls while he stated that the loan from the ADB lacked clarity.
Figures by the Finance minister Matia Kasaija indicate that Uganda’s external and domestic public debt amounted to $8.7 billion as of December 31, 2016, equivalent to 33.8 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Source:The East African
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