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The Government has already invested sh1.4 trillion through the Uganda Development Bank Ltd (UDB) to accelerate socio-economic development in the country, the finance ministry's permanent secretary Ramathan Ggoobi said on Tuesday.

He was delivering a keynote address at the 7th Economic Summit at Kampala Serena Hotel.
                             
Ggoobi said sh1.4 trillion is in addition to other investments in Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), Emyooga initiative and Parish Development Model (PDM), among others.
 
“These are all intended to ease access to capital and lift our people out of poverty,” he said.
 
He also said investing in people proves to be a more practical approach to addressing inequalities.
 
“Those claiming that Emyooga is not beneficial are often individuals who are not beneficiaries themselves or are unaware of the challenges faced by some Ugandans in their daily lives. The goal is to integrate individuals who are not part of the monetary economy into the economic system."
 
UDB is Uganda’s national development finance institution with a mandate to accelerate socio-economic development through sustainable financial interventions.
 
Consistent with this mandate, the bank supports projects within the private sector that demonstrate potential to deliver high socio-economic value, in terms of job creation, improved production output, tax contribution and foreign exchange generation, among other outcomes.
 
As of June 2023, UDB’s total assets amount to sh1.58 trillion, growing by 19% since the beginning of 2022, its managing director, Patricia Ojangole, said in June this year.
 
“This growth is largely attributed to increased funding, primarily through capital allocations from the Government and the utilization of credit lines from our funding partners that enables the bank to disburse credit. The bank’s gross loan portfolio as of April 2023 is sh1.384 trillion,” she added.
 
However, UDB has in the recent past come under criticism for not lending to struggling small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and putting unnecessary conditions that cannot be fulfilled by most SMEs to access cheap capital.
 
Denis Dokoria, the public relations officer of UDC, said at the summit that the private sector at times perceives UDC as a competitor, which is not the case. 

“Instead, UDC is actively supporting the private sector, particularly in agro-manufacturing sectors such as tea, sugar, coffee, fruit processing, cassava value addition, and the cotton industry,” he said.
 
Anne Juuko, the chief executive of Stanbic Bank Uganda, said many Ugandans are willing to pay taxes. “However, we would like to see accountability for public expenditure in form of better service delivery."