POVERTY: World Banks Lends Uganda $100 Million in Budget Support to Reduce Poverty

By Fred Ojambo - Nov 24, 2010
The World Bank will lend $100 million to Uganda to finance projects aimed at reducing poverty in the East African nation, Finance Minister Syda Bbumba said.
The Washington-based lender will provide the loan through its International Development Agency to improve “service delivery” and “infrastructure development,” Bbumba told reporters today in the capital, Kampala.
The 40-year concessional loan, with a grace period of 10 years, will carry an interest rate of less than 1 percent, the minister said. The World Bank is expected to release the entire loan as early as next week and it will be spent in the 12 months through June, she said.
The loan is the eighth credit line the World Bank has given Uganda to support its budget, with earlier loans worth a total of $760 million, Bbumba said. About 23.3 percent of Uganda’s population live below the poverty line, compared with 31.1 percent in 2005-06, the minister said, without giving details.
The country’s population is rising by 3.2 percent a year, one of the fastest growth rates in the world, with more than half the population under the age of 15, Bbumba said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-24/world-banks-lends-uganda-100-million-in-budget-support-to-reduce-poverty.html