20100528
africa good news

The World Bank has offered Uganda $1.97 billion in concessional loans over the next five years to help finance the country's newly-launched National Development Plan (NDP), the World Bank said.

East Africa's third largest economy has been praised for weathering the impact of the global economic slowdown and maintaining a relatively strong growth momentum.

"The International Development Association (IDA) will commit an estimated $1.97 billion to support development projects and programs in Uganda," said the statement which was seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The development plan was launched in April and its implementation will cost an estimated 50 trillion Uganda shillings.

Uganda had successfully maintained macroeconomic stability and "pursued reforms leading to impressive growth and poverty reduction over the past two decades," the bank said in the statement.

The country still faces constraints, including high population growth, regional disparities, and weaknesses in governance and service delivery that are hampering its economic transformation efforts, the Washington-based bank added.

Uganda will use the money to expand public infrastructure, train its workforce and improve good governance.

"This coincides with a window of opportunity for Uganda to lay the groundwork for effective and transparent management of its future oil wealth, and improve service delivery," said Kundhavi Kadiresan, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda.

The east African nation discovered commercial hydrocarbon deposits in the Albertine Rift Basin in the west along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 and reserves are estimated at 2 billion barrels. Commercial production is expected to commence in the last quarter of 2011.