Govt seeks Shs2.7t for municipals, cities
Lands, Housing and Urban Development minister Judith Nabakooba. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
The Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development that has been running since September 2013 is coming to an end in December. To avoid total elimination of the programme, government is seeking funding to continue benefiting cities and municipalities across the country.
The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, the current lead implementer of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) is seeking additional $750 million (Shs2.7 trillion) to develop more infrastructure in the current USMID beneficiaries Cities and municipalities and 15 new others.
The USMID programme has been running since September 2013 with funding from the World Bank. It was meant to end in December 2018 before it was extended to December this year.
A total sum of $138 million (about Shs495 billion) was spent during the first phase of the USMID programme that ran between September 2013 and December 2018 while $360 million (about Shs1.2 trillion) was spent during the second phase that ran from December 2019 and will expire in December this year.
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In bid to avoid total elimination of the USMID programme, the ministry has proposed a similar programme named the Uganda Cities and Municipalities Infrastructure Development (UCMID), which shall benefit the 48 cities and municipalities, including the current 33 and 15 new others.
This phase is also going to be funded by the World Bank, pending signing of financing agreements with the government.
Among the 33 cities and municipalities under phase one and two, include Entebbe, Moroto, Kabale, Mbarara, Masaka, Fort Portal, Hoima, Gulu, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja, Arua, Lira and Soroti which were enrolled during phase one of 2013-2028. More eight municipalities include Busia, Apac, Ntungamo, Kasese, Lugazi. Kamuli, Kitgum and Mubende and 11 refugee hosting districts, including Isingiro, Kamwenge, Kiryandongo, Obongi, Lamwo, Terego, Madi-Okollo, Arua, Adjumani, Moyo, and Yumbe joined during the 2019-2023 phase.
The minister of Lands, Ms Judith Nabakooba, told reporters at the ministry headquarters on Saturday that the success of the programme in the current districts has prompted the government to enrol in the new 15 districts, which will run between 2024 and 2029.
Installation of solar street lights on major roads in cities and municipalities has been part of the USMID project.
“The concept note was approved by the Development Subcommittee- at the ministry of finance, planning and economic development, and so they have approved profile and prefeasibility studies. The ministry is currently conducting feasibility studies,” she said.
The additional 15 municipalities are Mityana, Iganga, Masindi, Rukungiri, Bushenyi-Ishaka, Kumi, Nebbi, Koboko, Kisoro, Kapchorwa, Ibanda, Njeru, Bugiri, Sheema and Kotido.
“We are working with the World Bank to see that we get funding because everyone has seen how the USMID programme has worked, and we must get measures of extending holistic infrastructure across the country,” she said.
The first phase of the programme led to the construction and commissioning of 78.4km of urban roads and were completed in 13 municipalities. Under the current phase, 51.8km of urban roads had been completed by June 30 with additional 87.1km pending completion by December 2023.
Targets
“Execution of road infrastructure sub-projects is ongoing in nine cities and 11 municipalities with the exception of Soroti City and Kitgum Municipality whose road infrastructure sub-projects have all been completed,” Ms Nabakooba said.
She added that three cities and three municipalities have also installed 2,980 solar street lights including 500 in Gulu, 704 in Mbarara, 1,380 in Masaka, 203 in Lugazi, 77 in Ntungamo, and 93 in Kabal, along paved roads that were constructed by other agencies. The installation of 250 solar street lights is still pending in Lugazi Municipality and an extra 107 in Kabale Municipality.
Under phase three, which will entirely run as UCMID, Ms Nabakooba said they have planned to construct 116km of roads, 22km roads under local economic development and 57km of primary drainage channels that have already been designed.
“The ministry is now in the process of preparing engineering designs for additional urban roads of 197km, primary drainage channels of 33km and six local economic sub-projects in the 10 cities and 12 municipalities under the current phase. Preparation of engineering designs for the additional 15 municipalities that will join the program will be done after the program has been approved,” she said.
Ms Nabakooba added that the USMID programme has also faced some challenges including delays in relocation of utilities during construction, where the utility bodies overcharge and also delay.
“To ease this, my ministry has prepared a paper on this issue and will be seeking for a harmonised policy approach for location of utilities within the right of way as a mitigation measure and clear modalities for dealing with the issue of relocation,” she said.
