Friday, February 17th, 2017

AFIEGO and partners’ communique on mortgaging Uganda’s oil for the Standard Gauge Railway

On February 13, 2017, 30 representatives from ten national and grassroots civil society organisations met at Africa Institute for Energy Governance’s (AFIEGO) office in Kampala and discussed reports that government was mooting staking Uganda’s oil to the Exim Bank of China to acquire funding to the tune of Shs 7.5 trillion for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). 

The participants of the meeting expressed shock that government was mortgaging Uganda’s oil despite this being explicitly prohibited under Section 74 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) of 2015. They called for reprimanding of the Attorney General for encouraging this illegality to go on. Participants also raised concerns about government’s consistent failure to sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and involve Ugandans in decisions regarding the oil sector. They pointed out that this was responsible for illegal decisions such as the one above. AFIEGO and partners’ communique on mortgaging Uganda’s oil for the Standard Gauge Railway