By Charles Mpangi, KAMPALA Uganda
The World
Bank has approved $300 million budget to aid Uganda in fighting the coronavirus
Covid-19.
The money will be used “to boost the government’s
capacity to prevent, detect and treat coronavirus, protect the poor and
vulnerable population and support economic recovery,” the Bank announced
Tuesday.
It said Uganda’s efforts to contain the spread of
the novel coronavirus had battered the country’s economy and was likely to send
an extra 3.15 million citizens into poverty. Already, about 8.7 million Ugandans
are living below the poverty line of less than two dollars a day.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact
on the economy and livelihoods. This budget support operation will enable the
Government to provide vital services, social safety nets and a more robust
shock-responsive system for the long term; and the economy to recover faster,”
said Tony Thompson, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda.
The Covid-19 pandemic, flooding and the locust
invasion have hurt the economy, dimming Uganda’s projected overall economic
growth to a low 3-4 percent in the financial year 2019/2020 from an earlier
projected 6.3 per cent.
To secure the financing, the Bank says, Uganda has
committed to undertake policy that directly supports low income households.
Presenting the country’s annual budget for
2019/2020 recently, Finance Minister Matiya Kasaija said the country will
inject money directly to support cash for work labour intensive programmes to
benefit some half a million people.
He said Uganda would also expand support to the vulnerable senior citizens grant for empowerment (SAGE) programme to cover an extra 71 districts.
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