Chinese-built expressway divides Uganda as debts mount
Construction of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway is ongoing. Uganda says the four-lane road is the jewel in the crown of an infrastructure programme that will boost economic growth but critics accuse the government of squandering debt relief and mortgaging much-anticipated oil revenues before crude starts to flow in 2020. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
Traffic will soar above the muddy swamp between Uganda’s capital and its international airport when a new Chinese-built highway opens in a few months time, but the road itself is mired in controversy.
The government has partly funded the 51km $580 million expressway with a loan, part of $11 billion in borrowings in the decade since the World Bank cancelled debts about a third that size as part of debt relief for poor states.
