Uganda’s socio-economic transformation: China has proved it’s a reliable partner

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OPINION

By Joshua Kingdom

When credit agencies, banks, insurance companies, etc. based in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany declared that they would no longer be involved with anything to do with the activities of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) back in 2024 despite their earlier commitments, things looked rather bleak for the project that had captivated the minds of Ugandans going back decades.

Rather than fall for the scare like everyone else, however, the government of China elected to stand with Uganda at this critical moment. The then Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, H.E. Xue Bing, alongside Beijing’s Ambassador to Kampala, H.E. Zhang Lizhon,g paid a visit to President Museveni carrying a response letter to his request that  China come to Uganda’s rescue. In the document, President Xi Jinping, who also doubles as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), expressed “full support” for EACOP and pointed out that if its promise came to fruition, the venture would “enhance socio-economic development for the region”.

What China demonstrated here then was that even with the complications that surrounded this project, the best approach towards the situation was one that sought to harness its potential while minimising the downsides as opposed to opting for cheap popularity. This is what distinguishes a true partner from actors that look to take advantage of a country’s endowments when they get to know about them, provided they can get away with it unscathed.

Indeed, the EACOP picture that has emerged post China’s involvement ably represents Beijing’s sophistication, i.e. sustainability queries as well as the fate of project-affected persons have been given priority, but that has not deterred progress on what the overall endeavour had been expected to realise. As recently as mid-December 2025, thus, water prices in areas such as Kabayoola and Nseese in Sembabule District came down from sh1,000 per jerry can to sh100 thanks to EACOP-associated corporate social responsibility campaigns. At the same time, the pipeline construction had generated at least 8,000 jobs and initiated $500 million worth of local procurement by the time it hit the 50% completion point (we are now past 75%), according to the Uganda Chamber of Energy and Minerals. This is to say nothing of the $1–2.5 annual revenue that the pipeline will bring in once it has been completed, of course.

The EACOP initiative, though, is best understood not as a one-off but as a piece that fits perfectly with a pattern that has characterised China-Uganda interstate affairs for a while. Take the field of infrastructure, for which collaboration between the two countries stands on years and years of close ties, for instance, and you will find several examples that equally represent this spirit. With Karuma Hydro (a plant first conceived in the late 90s), it was only after the government picked on M/S Synohydro Corporation Limited, on top of securing funding from the Export-Import Bank (Yes, previous partners abandoned the venture), that the big dream finally came to see the day of light in 2024. Relatedly, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority has reported that the ongoing expansion at Entebbe International Airport has been enabled by a concessional loan from China that carries minimal interest.

Beijing’s role in Uganda’s Healthcare has been instrumental too. A fitting illustration here is the China-Uganda Friendship Hospital in Naguru, which, though initially starting with modest goals, has been at the receiving end of huge donations from the CPC as the demand for its services has grown. This includes a $5 million grant given to the facility through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a little over a year ago.

China equally rose to the occasion during the 2024/2025 fiscal year when Western donors announced that they would be significantly cutting malaria-related aid in heavy proportions, not least because of the ruckus brought about by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency gimmicks. In that case, Beijing’s embassy in Kampala sourced $1.1 million worth of anti-malaria drugs to fill the gap. To appreciate how much of a big deal this is, one ought to recall that the roughly 100,000 Ugandans who succumb to this sickness each other year mean that we come in seventh place on the list of nations that are worst hit by it worldwide.

There are many other examples that I could pick on to illustrate this further, but one more should suffice, given what we have already explored. The first half of 2025 saw coffee exportation to China in Uganda multiply by 190% thanks to the zero-tariffs policy entered under FOCAC early in the year. The sum-total of these scenarios then is an ally that has been willing to go through thick and thin with Kampala not only through words but vivid real-life incidents that back them just as much.

For Uganda and the current government in particular, one can safely argue that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government has been in position to fulfill most of their promises of mega projects the NRM party is currently partly campaigning on, thanks to China’s win-win cooperation with Uganda.  

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre