Current Affairs

Government agrees to borrow shs.1.3 trillion to construct Kabale International airport.

By Joseph Lubandi

Posted on November 30, 2017

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Minister of State for Finance, Hon. David Bahati

Government is planning to borrow Shs. 1.3 trillion from London banks. Government officials have said that this money will be used to finance the construction of Kabale International Airport in the oil region. The airport is one of the planned infrastructure developments ahead of scheduled oil production in 2020.

During plenary on Tuesday, 28th Nov. 2017 legislators approved a government request to borrow a total of Euros 307 million from UK Export Finance and Standard Chartered Bank (London) for the construction of the airport.

Minister of State for Finance, Hon. David Bahati emphasized that the construction of the airport is very important in for the country because it will be used to facilitate the oil exploration activities.

“We need to set up a petroleum based industrial park, which will host the refinery, an international airport, petrochemical industries and energy based industries to ensure that we get the profits to develop the country,” Bahati said.

He added that the in relation to the priorities of the oil companies, the airport is ready for operation to facilitate the refinery construction in parallel with the oil field developments.

“We need an airport to handle the heavy and large aircrafts that will be transporting equipment. The present road infrastructure cannot handle the weight and extra sized cargo without making substantial infrastructure adjustment which is quite costly and time bound, hence the construction of an airport,” the Minister said.

He noted that in the medium to long term, the airport will support the increased propensity to travel among the local population and tourists travelling from Hoima to surrounding areas.

Parliament, additionally passed two other loan request: US$ 84 million to finance the upgrading of the Kapchorwa-Suam Road Kapchorwa-Suam-Kitale and Eldoret bypass road projects; and US$14.4 million to support Multinational Lake Victoria Maritime Communications and Transport Project.

via: TheInsider