Uganda's president takes control of government loans approval

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the redirection of all government loans to his desk for approval before it gets to parliament.

In a letter to parliament on Wednesday, Museveni rejected 11 loans tabled before the house and ordered them to approve 16 other loan requests, local media Daily Monitor reported.

The president cited among others, the lack of value of some of the loans to the economy as reason for his action.

The rejected loans included a $200 million loan for the construction of the Kampala-Jinja Expressway which he said can be funded with road tolls.

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga told the House that the “President feels that we are over-burdening the country by contracting so many loans, some of which do not add value to the country.”

“He proposes that the loans should have his personal endorsement before they come to this House,” she added.

Uganda’s external and domestic debt hit $8.7 billion in 2017 accounting for 33.8% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This is equivalent to the country’s 2017 budget.