Overview:
The facility, which is about $240 million and is subject to approval by IMF Executive Board, is part of the $1b (about 3.547 trillion) that IMF extended to Uganda in 2021 under the Extended Credit Facility programme.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has extended another credit facility to Uganda to help enhance the country’s economic recovery subdued by Covid-19 disruptions.
The facility, which is about $240 million and is subject to approval by IMF Executive Board, is part of the $1b (about 3.547 trillion) that IMF extended to Uganda in 2021 under the Extended Credit Facility programme.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, 21 December 2022, IMF said its staff and the Uganda authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the combined second and third reviews of the 36-month ECF-financed program.
“Uganda will have access to SDR 180.5 million, about US$240 million, in financing once the review is formally completed by the IMF Executive Board in the coming weeks,” IMF said in a statement.
They said their staff team led by Mr. Malhar Nabar conducted a virtual mission to Uganda from October 31 – November 22, 2022 to discuss progress on reforms and the authorities’ policy priorities in the context of the combined second and third reviews.
“Uganda will have access to SDR 180.5 million, about US$240 million, in financing once the review is formally completed by the IMF Executive Board in the coming weeks,”
imf STATEMENT
The IMF team met with the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Ramathan Ggoobi; Deputy Governor of the BoU, Dr Michael Atingi-Ego; and other BoU and senior government officials.
In the end, IMF said they were impressed by Uganda’s progress in terms of structural reforms aimed at containing inflation, reducing excessive expenditure and strengthening their Domestic Revenue Mobilization Strategy to shore up local revenues to finance the budget.
“The IMF staff team is grateful to the authorities for the fruitful and constructive discussions and the authorities’ effort to maintain stability in a difficult environment,” they said in a statement.
“The anticorruption agenda is progressing with the Companies Act amended to prepare the ground for the implementation of a beneficial ownership register allowing timely access to information. Tools for AML/CFT risk-based supervision for the financial sector are being developed and implemented. The authorities published information on compliance statistics for asset declarations and on applications to access the declarations, on the Inspectorate of Government’s website,” IMF added.
According to IMF, Uganda’s growth projection has also fallen, due to the difficult global; economic conditions.
“Growth is projected at 5.3 percent in FY22/23, 0.7 percentage point lower than at the time of the first review in March reflecting weaker global demand and the impact of rising inflation and interest rates on domestic demand. Medium,” they said.
“Risks to the outlook are elevated and include lower global growth, persistently higher inflation in advanced economies and associated tighter global financial conditions; an intensification of the Ebola outbreak; and more frequent disruptions in activity due to climate change,” IMF added.