The Minister of State for Works and Transport, Musa Ecweru, has expressed serious concern over the inadequate funding allocated to Uganda’s national roads in the FY2025/26 budget, warning that the funding shortfall could severely undermine road safety and infrastructure development.
Addressing Parliament on 14 May 2025, Ecweru began by acknowledging recent tragic road accidents, including those on Kisoga-Nyenga Road, Pakwach-Arua Road, and the Busabala Flyover. He extended his “heartfelt condolences to the families affected” and assured that investigations are underway to “identify the causes of the accidents and prevent this preventable loss of lives on our roads in the future.”
The Minister highlighted the deteriorating condition of the road network, noting that “1,880 km of paved roads require periodic maintenance, while 615 km have already deteriorated to the level of requiring full rehabilitation.” He attributed this backlog primarily to “consistent underfunding for maintenance activities over the years.”
On the budget for national roads, Ecweru revealed a massive funding gap: “In the FY 2025/26 the total budget allocated to national roads is UGX 682 Billion against a total requirement of UGX 3.15 Trillion resulting in a funding gap of UGX 2.472 Trillion.” He detailed that the UGX 3.15 Trillion is needed to cover domestic arrears exceeding UGX 1 Trillion, land acquisition, urgent maintenance, rehabilitation, and bridge and ferry development projects.
He emphasized that “budgetary allocations have sharply fallen from 90% of the expected allocation in FY2022/23 to only 20% in FY2025/26,” warning that this “reduction in budgetary allocations is the main cause of the increasing domestic arrears.”
The Ministry’s workplan for FY2025/26 aligns with the National Development Plan IV (NDP IV), but the Minister lamented that “due to the large funding gap it will be impossible to undertake the activities in the workplan with potential catastrophic effects on the state of roads across the country.” For instance, the Mityana-Mubende road, which requires UGX 130 billion, was only allocated UGX 21 billion, while the Kampala-Jinja road received UGX 7 billion against a requirement of UGX 90 billion. He added that the Mbarara-Ishaka road, “despite being in bad condition,” received no funding.
General Katumba warned that failure to close the funding gap would lead to serious consequences including increased interest on unpaid arrears estimated at UGX 48 billion in FY2025/26, “contractors demobilising” which would increase future repair costs, and “increased accidents on the abandoned sites and across the road network.”
He stressed the importance of maintenance, stating, “It is much cheaper to undertake periodic maintenance interventions like resealing and local repairs compared to the full rehabilitation that is usually required when a road is neglected.” He cited the Kampala Northern Bypass as an example where “periodic maintenance currently being implemented will give the road a new lease of life at a reasonable cost.”
If no maintenance is done, “an additional 500 km of paved roads currently in fair condition will degrade to the point of requiring full rehabilitation,” representing a loss of “about UGX 1.007 Trillion” in asset value.
In conclusion, General Katumba urged Parliament to urgently intervene by providing additional resources to enable the completion of ongoing projects and the acquisition of land for new ones. He proposed five key strategies, including “providing funds for key maintenance projects,” “payment of outstanding arrears,” and “prioritisation of funding for maintenance and ensuring the funds are released in a predictable manner.”
He further assured Parliament that the Ministry is committed to road safety, promising to “conduct road safety inspections at all work zones” and “install mitigation measures to ensure the safety of all road users.”
Ecweru ended his statement by affirming the Ministry’s commitment: “The Ministry of Works and Transport is committed to utilising the allocated resources in the most effective manner possible for reliable and safe works, transportation infrastructure and services.”