KYANKWANZI, Uganda — Investments by the Uganda Development Bank have created 55,553 jobs and generated 20 trillion shillings in output value, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja reported Friday.
Presiding over a leadership graduation for bank employees at the National Leadership Institute, Nabbanja detailed the significant economic footprint of the state-owned lender. She noted that the bank, known as UDB, has disbursed 2.45 trillion shillings to date, targeting 607 businesses in sectors ranging from commercial agriculture and manufacturing to tourism and health services.
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The prime minister emphasized that these investments are a direct result of President Yoweri Museveni’s initiative to recapitalize national financial institutions. Beyond job creation, the funded projects have contributed 944.2 billion shillings in taxes and earned 3.3 trillion shillings in foreign exchange for the country.
“The private sector needs money to support their businesses,” Nabbanja said. “By recapitalizing UDB, the government is availing cheap and affordable money for the private sector to invest and create jobs for Ugandans.”
To sustain this momentum, Nabbanja announced that the government has allocated an additional 1 trillion shillings to the bank in the current financial year. The capital injection is intended to further lower the cost of credit, which the prime minister described as a “bone marrow” requirement for a thriving economy alongside affordable electricity and transport.
Dr. Patricia Ojangole, the managing director of UDB, said the bank is focused on ensuring its staff are ideologically oriented to serve the public effectively. The weeklong training in Kyankwanzi was designed to align the bank’s operations with the national agenda for socioeconomic transformation.
Nabbanja also lauded the performance of other revamped institutions, including the Uganda Development Corporation and Pearl Bank, formerly known as PostBank, for their roles in the government’s broader economic strategy.
