World Bank lifts lending freeze on Uganda

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Nairobi, Kenya | AFP

The World Bank is lifting a freeze on lending to Uganda it put in place in response to a 2023 law criminalising homosexuality, after taking steps to counter discrimination, it said Wednesday, June 4.

Uganda's anti-LGBTQ law provides for harsh sentences for same-sex relations or "promoting" homosexuality, including the death penalty in some cases.

After President Yoweri Museveni signed it into law in May 2023, the World Bank halted all new loans to Uganda, saying projects it financed had to adhere to its non-discriminatory policies.

Since then, "the World Bank worked with the government and other stakeholders in the country to introduce, implement and test measures that prevent discrimination in World Bank-funded projects," a spokesman told AFP.

"We have now determined the mitigation measures rolled out over the last several months in all ongoing projects in Uganda to be satisfactory.

Consequently, the Bank has prepared new projects in sectors with significant development needs," which will be presented to the World Bank's board. All new projects have the mitigation measures embedded in them," he added.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance revealed that the Government is in negotiations with the World Bank for new funding aimed at refurbishing 160 traditional secondary schools in the country.

“We are finalising negotiations with the World Bank for a big project we are bringing under U-Learn where most schools will be rehabilitated,” the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ramathan Ggoobi, revealed on 13 May 2025.

Ggoobi noted that the U-Learn Program, together with the existing Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Programme (U-GIFT project), also funded by the World Bank, will go a long way to boost the infrastructural needs in the education sector.

The UGIFT programme, worth $300 million, targets the rehabilitation of 1,000 primary existing schools, alongside infrastructural development in the health and environment sectors.

The PS made the revelation while appearing before the Parliament Budget Committee.

In company of the State Minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Henry Musasizi, the PS and other ministry officials were interacting with the legislators to respond to queries raised by MPs on the draft budget for the 2025/2026 financial year.