KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda plans to borrow $358 million from regional and private lenders to finance various projects, including a power grid interconnection with neighbouring South Sudan, according to a finance ministry official.
The credit will be sourced from the African Development Fund, an arm of the African Development Bank, the Arab Bank for Development in Africa, and Standard Chartered Bank, junior finance minister, Henry Musasizi, said while presenting the plan in parliament late on Tuesday.
Deputy House Speaker Thomas Tayebwa referred the request to a House committee, comprising of both ruling party and opposition lawmakers, that will study it and make a report before the full House debates and takes a vote on the request.
Other projects to be financed by the loan include a road in the country’s northwest linking Uganda to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the expansion of clean water access.
Uganda, which now produces surplus power after commissioning a $1.7 billion Chinese-funded hydropower dam last year, has been planning to start exporting some of its excess electricity to energy-starved South Sudan.
The east African country has already been in talks with the Chinese firm Sinohydro to develop the project, which will involve construction of a 138-km (85.75 miles) high-voltage transmission line, expansion of two substations, and construction of one new one.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
