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Finance minister Matia Kasaija has met a delegation from the High Commission of India in Uganda led by Dammu Ravi, the economic relations secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

Kasaija applauded the existing cordial bilateral relations between India and Uganda and invited Indian investors to take advantage of the available investment opportunities in Uganda.

The April 11, 2024, meeting held at the finance ministry boardroom in Kampala, was also attended by the state minister for international relations Okello Oryem.

Kasaija discussed the available lines of credit worth $205.5m (approx. sh800b) offered to the government of Uganda by the Government of India.

Uganda is expected to submit ready projects, especially from the ministries of Energy, Agriculture and Trade.

These lines of credit have a grant window that Uganda can tap into to get grant funding for studying priority projects. According to government policy, no project will be cleared going forward without being studied.

Priorities for the lines of credit include; grid reinforcement & extension, development of infrastructure for agriculture and dairy sector, supply and installation of solar-powered water pumping systems.

To improve the execution, success and timely completion of projects no projects will be undertaken unless their management cycles are complete which include designs, feasibility studies and availability of counterpart funding. 

The finance ministry recently launched the Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP) Phase II, a single window system for all stakeholders involved in the Public Investment Management System of Uganda. 

The system serves as a central repository of information about public projects from preparation, budget formulation, execution, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The IBP was rolled out in 2019 for use by the ministries, agencies and departments of government. It covers project preparation, project management, monitoring and evaluation of the Public Investment Management System (PIMS) framework. 

The system has been designed with different stakeholders for use by different stakeholders involved in the project cycle. 

The system can generate various reports such as the public investment plan report, project prioritisation report, project completion report, and monitoring reports.

The Public Investment Management had suffered challenges including limited tracking of projects by the technocrats and politicians. This has hindered effective monitoring of project performance, oversight during execution and failure to attain project outcomes. 

The finance ministry in collaboration with the World Bank, in 2016, conducted a diagnostic study on strengthening Public Investment Management in Uganda. Following the study, the Government formulated and adopted a comprehensive multi-year action plan for Public Investment Management. 

This has been implemented to strengthen the preparation, selection, implementation and monitoring of projects. In pursuit of the Government’s effort to ensure efficient and effective public investment management, the Government undertook a number of reforms including restructuring the finance ministry, to create a department dedicated to coordinating Public Investment Management.   

Among the key actions that the department was tasked with was to develop and adopt a system for tracking all public investments in the country. 

The new system has enhanced access to information on projects for all stakeholders including ministries, departments and agencies, development partners and development committee members.

This has improved the number of projects completing the appraisal process.