The World Bank is set to resume funding to Uganda after it announced its decision to lift the ban on loans to the impoverished East African nation over an anti-gay law passed in 2023.
The law was criticized by western powers and media as one of the harshest in the world.
Delivering his 2025 state of the nation address on June 05 at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in the capital Kampala, President Museveni said the Ugandan economy had continued to grow despite funding freezes by the World Bank and other partners.
“Many other projects in roads, energy, ICT, schools, hospitals and agriculture, have continued to be implemented, despite the World Bank and the USA, suspending new financing to Uganda,” the president said in his speech.
“Our economy remains strong and resilient. It was recently ranked seventh, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among the fastest growing economies in the World. The size of the economy is projected at Shs. 224.9 trillion (equivalent to USD 60.4 billion), by the end of June, 2025.”
You can read Museveni’s full state of the nation address, word by word, HERE.
After two years of funding freeze for Uganda, the World Bank says it will resume funding and that it has put in place new mitigation measures that will ensure that LGBTQ people are neither discriminated nor harmed in any way.
A spokesman for the World Bank was quoted as telling the AFP news agency on Thursday, June 05, 2025, that the Ugandan government and the organization had agreed on putting in place and implementing measures aimed at fighting discrimination against LGBTQ people.
“The World Bank cannot deliver on its mission to end poverty and boost shared prosperity on a liveable planet unless all people can participate in, and benefit from, the projects we finance,” a World Bank spokesman said.
It should be remembered that a number of projects were affected after the World Bank suspended funding to Uganda over the anti-gay law. See projects that were affected Here.
Museveni and some Ugandan organisations insisted that Uganda would not allow ‘homo’ acts for money, with the president even saying that part of the World Bank funds were being blown on seminars, as reported Here, There and Over There.
Meanwhile, over funding cuts such as in the health sector are affecting service delivery with HIV/AIDS patients reportedly struggling to pay for ARVs that should be free in some hospitals, as reported Here and There.
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