Arab Development Bank provides $20m for Ugandan private sector

October 14, 2022 in Finance, Investment by Editor

In making the funds available, Dr. Aldossari (left) said the potential of Sub-Saharan Africa remains vast and key to the Arab world while Ojangole (right) noted that the $20m will go to the sectors of primary agriculture, agro-Industry and manufacturing.

Uganda’s private sector is to benefit from a $20 million line of credit being provided by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) through the Uganda Development Bank Limited (UDB).

Dr. Fahad Abdullah Aldossari, the BADEA Board Chairman said recently in Kampala, “This marks another key milestone for BADEA in the expansion of our development activities in Africa that we are accelerating in line with the needs of the continent. The potential of Sub-Saharan Africa remains vast and key to the Arab world.”

BADEA is a multilateral financial institution headquartered in Khartoum, Republic of the Sudan. It is owned by the 18 member countries that make up the League of Arab States and was established on 18th February 1974. It began operations in March 1975 providing finance and technical assistance for economic development exclusively in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Patricia Ojangole, the Managing Director of UDB said during signing of the relevant agreements said, “This new funding will go a long way in bridging financing gaps in the key economic and productive sectors particularly primary agriculture, agro-Industry and manufacturing.”

The money is split into two parts, a $10 million trade finance line of credit used exclusively to finance eligible import transactions from the Arab countries and $10 million to finance eligible private sector projects for the benefit of sub-borrowers within Uganda.

“The new funding of $20 million will bring the total number of lines of credit extended to UDB by BADEA to six; a clear demonstration of BADEA’s commitment to support UDB in its aspiration of fostering Uganda’s socio-economic development. It is also testament to the confidence of our stakeholders in the Bank and the role it is playing, and aligns with UDB’s ambition to diversify its funding base thereby enable it to address the continually growing demand for patient capital,” Ojangole said.

Uganda Development Bank Limited (UDB) is the country’s national Development Finance Institution (DFI) with a mandate to accelerate socio-economic development in Uganda through sustainable financial interventions. Consistent with this mandate, the Bank supports projects within the private sector that demonstrate potential to deliver high socio-economic value, in terms of job creation, improved production output, tax contribution and foreign exchange generation, among other outcomes.

 

UDB’s relationship with BADEA’s dates back to 1985 when the Bank acquired its’ first line of credit to support the private sector. BADEA has previously extended to UDB four lines of credit that have all been fully utilized.

 

BADEA’s core role is to strengthen economic, financial, and technical cooperation between Arab and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and is the embodiment of Arab-African solidarity on foundations of equality and friendship. Since operations began in 1975, the Bank has financed 730 public sector projects, approved 83 private sector and trade finance operations, and provided more than 890 technical assistance and capacity development grants across 44 Sub Saharan African countries that often struggle to attract competitive private sector funding.