Germany has committed a further €50m (about Shs240bn) to Uganda for energy, water and rural development projects, as Uganda’s government pressed for more German investment to help it industrialise.
The money was agreed at the end of two-yearly government-to-government talks on development cooperation, which opened in Kampala on Monday. The German embassy announced the outcome in a statement on Tuesday.
Opening the talks, Uganda’s Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Dr Ramathan Ggoobi, said the country wanted its partnership with Germany to deliver investment that boosts production, value addition, exports and jobs.
“We need to translate our cooperation into increased production, value addition, exports, employment and improved livelihoods,” he said.
Dr Ggoobi said the cooperation should support the government’s Tenfold Growth Strategy, which aims to grow Uganda’s economy to $500bn (about Shs1,900 trillion) by 2040.
He named agro-industrialisation, tourism, minerals, and science, technology and innovation as the priority areas for German investment, alongside skills development and infrastructure.
Dr Ggoobi welcomed Germany’s proposed projects, including a water security investment on the River Enyau, electricity access in the West Nile sub-region, climate-resilient agribusiness, and the SCALE programme for local economic development in northern Uganda.
Joachim Schmitt, who led the German delegation as head of the Central and East Africa division at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, said mobilising private capital alongside development finance would be important to speeding up Uganda’s economic transformation.
He said a predictable investment environment, good governance, transparency and respect for human rights were important foundations for cooperation.
The German embassy said development aid, trade and investment were now “complementary parts of the same partnership”.
Germany’s private investment arm is already a significant source of capital for Ugandan firms. DEG, the private-sector subsidiary of the state-owned development bank KfW, has more than €100m invested in Ugandan businesses through loans and equity, according to the embassy.
Global funds backed by German government risk capital have mobilised a further €250m in investments and guarantees in the country, it said.
Through its development agency, GIZ, Germany works with Ugandan and European companies in sectors including coffee, horticulture, aquaculture, energy and minerals.
The talks also covered Uganda’s refugee response. Dr Ggoobi said the country was hosting about 2.05 million refugees and asylum seekers as of September, putting pressure on public services, and called for predictable international financing and fairer burden-sharing.
Schmitt praised Uganda’s refugee policy but acknowledged the growing pressure of hosting large refugee populations. Germany is also building six valley tanks in Karamoja to improve water access.
The two sides agreed on the need to honour existing commitments and speed up project implementation.
Uganda met the UN criteria for graduating from the Least Developed Countries category for the first time in 2024, a step that could eventually reduce its access to cheaper financing and trade preferences. The earliest it could graduate is 2032.
At the previous round of talks, held in Berlin in October 2022, Germany committed €68.8m in grants.
Source: PML Daily
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