By Robert Kigongo

Ideally, it will be one of the greatest mistakes similar to the sale of Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) in 2001 to prejudicial merge Uganda National Roads Authority.

On January 27, 2023, was privileged in person to attend the first-ever memorial lecture of Professor Emmanuel Mutebile Tumusiime, the past Governor of the Bank of Uganda at Serena Hotel, Kampala of which the chief guest President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni notably stated: “it’s the late professor who advised his government to sale off UCB which was a regrettable mistake against Professor Ezra Suruma’s advise”. 

Therefore, history has exonerated professor Ezra Suruma, the same way it will exonerate me through this article in black and white, but before it is too late rethink merging UNRA. Allow me to repurpose UNRA’s autonomy in steadfast national development and why it should stay intact against all odds. 

None of the decision makers whether in Parliament, Cabinet, the Ministry of Public or IMF and World Bank can appreciate that all parts of the country are now easily accessible and travel time and vehicle operating costs have been reduced because of UNRA's visible performance.

UNRA’s autonomy undoubtedly has registered great success beyond and has stirred this country to better road networks and bridges compared to the past years of the Roads Maintenance Initiative (RMI) that started in 1989.

UNRA’s role is different from that of mainstream ministries which are designed to expenditures rather than results. 

Am not against government efforts towards minimising national expenditure through rationalisation but in doing so, there are institutions like UNRA whose services physically stand out. Therefore, instead of focusing on merging them, we should rethink and conduct a thorough review of the consequences. 

Before the formation of UNRA, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communication (MOWHC) as it was called then, was responsible for planning, developing and maintaining an adequate and effective infrastructure to facilitate the provision of transport by rail, road, air and water as well as promoting an efficient communication system throughout the country.

The strategy for rural feeder road rehabilitation maintenance in 1992, the road management initiative (RMI-1997); the road sector development programme (1996-2006) and the Uganda Road Agency Study (2002), the initiative resulted in the formation of UNRA as a semi–autonomous entity under the UNRA act of 2006.

RAFU introduced efficiency gains of 1500Km new paved roads, 300Km of reconstructed roads, improved procurement decentralised road network development never seen before in the MOWT and it is these gains that made a compelling case for the Government to continue with the institutional reforms to a full-fledged Road Agency (UNRA) which was established by an Act parliament in 2006.

Since the creation of UNRA in 2008, the following have been the major achievements;

2600km of new paved roads: the paved national road network increased by 2600km from 2800km to 5400km an increase of 93% over 10 years. A total of 1820km of national roads have been reconstructed. 370km of paved per year: there has been an average of 370km of national roads paved per year (new and reconstruction roads) 

Improved road condition: National road network condition has improved from 77% to 97% for paved roads and from 53% to 84% for gravel roads representing an overall excellent road condition all year round.

Efficient management: Under UNRA, the sector has been able to realize efficient management of the national road network especially in the areas of financial management, networking planning, contact management and human resource development.

Introduction of road user charges: Road user charging schemes have been rolled out and output and performance-based contracts and ppps introduced as alternative financing mechanisms for the development of expressways; for example, Kampala Expressway, Kampala Jinja expressway, Kampala South Bypass and Busega Mpigi expressway.

Improved accountability: UNRA has put in place strong systems and mechanisms that ensure accountability and make it difficult to haemorrhage resources through corruption.

Technical capacity: UNRA has developed robust technical capacity for design, construction, project management, environment and social safeguards and can manage high-valued and complex projects (ppps, OPRC project management, contact claims management and financial modelling of infrastructure projects) that stakeholders and development partners have acknowledged.

How do we blindly merge UNRA which is extending technical support to other ministries such as the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development?

I think the movers of government rationalisation have not critically paid much attention that UNRA operates in a businesslike manner and remunerates staff to levels higher than for the traditional civil service has enabled it to attract and train a range of skilled staff.

Project financing: Due to the technical capacity and effectiveness of UNRA based on the assessment of stakeholders, UNRA has been in the position to attract support from a range of Development partners, who are happy to associate with UNRA and participate in the National Road Development and Maintenance Programme.

Improved stakeholder management: UNRA has put in place a proper stakeholder engagement framework and strengthened stakeholder management that has enabled the public to own and play a role in the road development process;

Improved environment and social management: UNRA has established clear policies and guidelines for environment and social management that are aligned with the current international standards and is now being touted as an example in the region, especially in the areas of gender-based violence, sexual exploitation, child labour, grievance management and stakeholder engagements;

Improved land acquisition process: by using internal staff, UNRA has updated and streamlined the land acquisition process and reduced the lead times for the acquisition of land and fraud that had marred the process thereby helping the Government to save billions of shillings.

UNRA is currently spearheading a number of undertakings as follows:

Decongestion of the city: According to the World Bank study, traffic jams in Kampala city are costing Uganda over $800m.

 If we adamantly insist on merging UNRA the country is likely to miss out on the following;

The dual of all the major corridors leading into the city within the greater Kampala metropolitan area.

Improved bottleneck junctions within the greater Kampala metropolitan area through the provision of flyovers, signalization or geometric improvements.

Upgrade existing gravel roads to provide alternative routes; UNRA is also implementing the Kampala flyover project and has finished the plans for the Nakasero-Northern Bypass express route aimed at reducing travel time and congestion within the greater Kampala metropolitan area.

Tolling operations: UNRA is in the process of operationalizing toll collection starting with Kampala-Entebbe Expressway, which is expected to generate at least $2bn in toll revenues in the next 20 years and create 2000 jobs for the first three toll roads (the other being Busega Mpigi and Kampala-Jinja expressways). Management of these toll roads will require a strong and accountable agency.

Cable-stayed bridges: UNRA has prepared plans to construct new cable-stayed bridges at Karuma, Masindi Port, Nakiwogo and Ggaba. These bridges are expected to be completed in the next five to 10 years.

Oil Roads; UNRA is currently upgrading a total of 700 km of oil roads to facilitate delivery of Uganda’s first oil by 2025.

Tourism Roads; UNRA has commenced a programme of upgrading 1200km of tourism roads under 5 tourism circuits of Bwindi-Rwenzori (230km) and central (100km);

Regional connectivity projects: to enhance Uganda's competitive position in the region, UNRA is currently undertaking road upgrading programme for all the roads leading to the borders with the neighbouring countries such as the Kapchorwa Suam, Atiak-Moyo Afoji - Sudan border, Kyotera- Mutukula, Kikolongo -Mpodwe, Nebi-Goli-Paidha-Zombo, Moroto-Lokitanyala, Muko-katuna among others.

Bottlenecks Along the road network: Uganda receives two rainy sessions each year and during these rainy seasons, a number of roads are closed to traffic due to flooding or washed away sections.

Subsequently, UNRA has mapped and designed interventions for all these bottleneck sections and has embarked on a process of fixing these bottlenecks to ensure the entire road network is motorable all year round 

UNRA has a huge potential to drive for industrialization of the country that enables the backbone infrastructure to support the industries that are being set up in various parts of the country given the country’s population GDP growth and corresponding traffic growth, the future national road network that is responsive to the transportation demand is expected to comprise the following;

Expressway network; according to the recently prepared Expressway Development Master plan, the sector will need to construct 750km of expressway by 2030 and 2100km by 2050 to support industrialization and economic growth.

According to whispers from UNRA, all these expressways will be based on the user pays principle with motorists paying tolls to use them and with intelligent transport systems, the majority will also be based on ppps/ concessions contracting frameworks in this regard.

Fortunately, UNRA has finished plans to improve a number of iconic/major expressway projects that are likely to underpin economic growth and enhance tourism.

In case UNRA is merged the country will miss The Kampala-Southern Bypass 

(ii)The Kampala Jinja expressway 

(iii) The Kampala Mpigi expressway 

(iv) The Kampala Bombo expressway

 (v) The Kampala outer beltway (2nd Ring Road) the Kampala Busunju expressway.

High capacity major Arterial Roads: All the major road corridors leading into Kampala city and the greater Kampala metropolitan area will require capacity improvement/ dual ling /flyovers /signalization to alleviate congestion in the greater Kampala metropolitan area city. 

Therefore, merging UNRA without repurposing its roles and rethinking its contributions and huge potential, we may as leaders and decision-makers land the country into the same regrets similar to Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) in 2001. 

During the Professor Mutebile Tumusiime memorial lecture in 2023, President Museveni appreciated the late Governor for advising him on the wage Bill, where the Bank of Uganda governor asked the government to focus on broadening the job base and increasing employment rather than increasing wages hence creating these agencies that feed our families, provide school fees for our children and a better decent leaving. 

Therefore, dismantling employment institutions like UNRA will set back the country's efforts to curb unemployment, crime rate, inequalities and inequities which may spark political instability, family breakups, mental health problems and economic setbacks since all activities depend on transport networks done by UNRA.

I strongly believe it’s not too late for the 11th Parliament, the Cabinet secretariat and the Ministry of Public Service to review this decision of merging UNRA; and probably consider other sectors to reduce the expenditure burden rather than disrupting the lifeblood of Uganda’s economy.

The writer is a sustainable development analyst.

Robertinez07@aol.com