Uganda has the best upcountry roads in the region — Finance boss

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The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Dr Ramadan Ggoobi has said that Uganda has the best upcountry road network in the region.

"The rest of the countries are just catching up with us. When we go there, they ask us how we have managed to have the best upcountry roads," Dr Ggoobi remarked at post budget discussion in Kampala on Friday June 14, 2024.

He was responding to activist Dr Sarah Birete's concern why the Government is constructing what she termed as 'kiosk roads' without cycling lanes, pedestrian walkways and city roads characterised with potholes.

Dr Ggoobi said Uganda is doing very well than Kenya, in terms of debt levels. "Only Tanzania is doing better than us," he said.

His disclosure comes barely two days after Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Deputy Executive Director, David Luyimbazi, said that it will take the Authority 32 years to rid the City of potholes, if Government maintains the current rate of funds, it allocates for road construction in the city.

Luyimbazi made the remarks on Wednesday June 12, 2024 while appearing before the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), where MPs wondered why the Authority is comfortable with being known as the merchants of potholes in the world, because potholes had now become the new identity of KCCA.

“We have been getting a budget of about sh64b to sh70b every financial year, for the past three years. Now, with the unit cost of construction of sh6 - sh7b for every Kilometer, that is about 10Kms we can do every year. Now, if we have 320Km that you must reconstruct, you need 32years to fix those roads, that is the situation we are talking to. So, when you ask us to take away the potholes, and you don't look at the financing we have and we can only progress at 10Kms every year, and we need 32 years, you can now understand the dilemma we are in,” Luyimbazi said.