Tag Archives: debt

Understanding the high risk burden to the economy posed by the current debt level COMMENT | Ezra Munyabonera | Due to high borrowing costs—especially domestically—Uganda’s debt burden may reach unsustainable levels in the medium term, unless government slows down on accumulation of new debt. Since the start of implementing infrastructure …

CHINA: Minister of Finance Kasaija’s secret letter to Museveni Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT TEAM | When, on October 18, 2018, Uganda signed an agreement with China for a US$212.6 million loan (Approx. Shs78 billion) for rural electrification, the issue of Uganda’s increasing debt and the unfair terms of some …

  PUBLIC DEBT: Why is it growing? Is it prohibitive, unsustainable? Kampala, Uganda | ANDREW M. MWENDA | On January 10, I watched with increasing depression a debate about Uganda’s national debt on the NBS Frontline show. Although the Minister of State for Finance, David Bahati, made many good arguments …

Paris, France | AFP | During the years of ultra cheap money, companies loaded up on debt but now the concern is whether they will be able to handle the mountain of debt as interest rates rise. Until last year, companies basked in the sun of low interest rates while …

Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique said Monday it was working with US and South African authorities after its former finance minister was arrested in Johannesburg over $2 billion in alleged secret loans to Mozambican state companies. Manuel Chang, 63, was arrested on December 29 and will appear in a …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija has said Uganda’s debt remains sustainable with nominal debt to GDP of 41.5%. He said the debt levels are comfortably below the international sustainability threshold of 50% debt to GDP ratio –  beyond which debt starts getting unsustainable – and …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Civil Society Organizations (CSO) under the Umbrella Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group have expressed fears that impact of the highly shooting public debt is going to be much felt by Ugandans in the next financial year as government plans to spend more on debt …

Analysts fear move will accumulate more debt for African countries Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Africa could further sink into more debt if China goes ahead with plans to sell the continent’s debt to investors, starting next year, observers fear. Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC), a leading Chinese banking conglomerate, …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP |  It was a time for smiles and handshakes as the delegations from Sierra Leone and China Exim Bank sealed a loan to provide the impoverished West African state with a new airport. Just months later, the much-trumpeted Mamamah International Airport scheme, estimated to cost …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | International lenders and markets are growing increasingly concerned about “hidden debt” in Zambia, a situation similar to the one that plunged neighbouring Mozambique into a deep financial crisis. For several weeks financiers have demanded answers about the level of the country’s true external borrowing — …