The Ugandan government’s Ministry of Finance said on Monday that the country is getting ready to borrow $150 million from China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim) to assist in expanding its internet infrastructure.
After the World Bank froze all new loans to Uganda earlier this year in protest of a new anti-homosexuality law, this decision provides more evidence that the East African nation is becoming increasingly dependent on Chinese lenders for cash.
In a post published on X, a social networking site, the Ministry of Finance stated that on Monday, a junior minister of finance and the minister for information requested that MPs approve the debt.
According to the government, the funds are intended “to finance the supply, installation, commissioning, and support of the national data transmission backbone infrastructure.”
Both the Chinese export credit agency SINOSURE and the Exim Bank are now in discussions with Uganda to get a loan that will be used to finance the building of a pipeline that would assist Uganda in exporting its crude oil to international markets.
Following President Yoweri Museveni’s signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which imposes severe punishments, including the death penalty, for a variety of homosexual behaviors, the World Bank, which has traditionally been Uganda’s largest contributor to the country’s growth, ceased providing loans to Uganda.
