Uganda asks China Exim Bank for USD 150 million loan for Phase V of National Backbone Infrastructure Project (linked to Project #53401, Project #53402. and Project #59750)

According to Uganda's "Report on Public Debt, Guarantees, Other Financial Liabilities and Grants for Financial Year 2017/18" published in March 2018, China Exim Bank was in appraisal of a USD 150 million loan to Uganda for Phase V of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure Project. According to State Minister of ICT and National Guidance Peter Ogwang, however, the Uganda government is currently seeking the loan from China and the two sides are in negotiations in February 2020. This phase of the project will cover 73 districts, and is expected to lower the price of internet usage by $10 per Mbps. It also will be launching an initiative called the Human Capital Management System to get rid of ghosts in government payroll, as well as other measures to limit corruption within the government. It will be used to construct 6,235km of optical fiber cable of backbone network and improve on the wireless infrastructure network by deploying 1,754 outdoor access points to provide Wifi hotspot services in designated locations. The National Backbone Infrastructure Project is also known as the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure Project (NBI/EGI). The Chinese name of the project is 乌干达电子政务和国家骨干网项目 (or 国家骨干网). This is the fifth phase of a project that was started in 2007 (Project #53401). The first to the third phases were financially supported by China Exim Bank while the Fourth phase was supported by the World Bank and implemented by Huawei, which entered into commission on November 21, 2020. It will be composed of two parts: the National Data Transmission Infrastructure (NBI) and the e-Government Infrastructure (EGI).

Additional details

It is unclear when Uganda submitted the loan application to China Exim Bank. Minister Ogwang's comment in one source seems to be inaccurate as he stated Uganda "had received $150 million from China" when, in fact, the two sides are still in negotiation.

Number of official sources

4

Number of total sources

11