Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has told the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) to put its financing muscle behind the country’s anchor growth sectors, saying this is what will get Uganda to its target of a USD 500 billion economy by 2040.
Musasizi was speaking during a meeting with UDB’s Board of Directors and management at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Kampala. He was joined by the State Minister for Planning, Amos Lugoloobi, and the State Minister for Privatisation and Investment, Aminah Mukalazi.
Uganda’s anchor sectors, known by the acronym ATMS, are agro industrialisation, tourism development, mineral based industrialisation, and science, technology and innovation. Government has built its Tenfold Growth Strategy around these four areas, with the aim of growing the economy from roughly USD 50 billion to USD 500 billion within 15 years.
Musasizi told the UDB team that the bank’s support has to translate into real progress for ordinary Ugandans and for government’s own growth targets.
UDB’s delegation was led by Board Chairman Geoffrey Kihuguru and Managing Director Patricia Ojangole.
Kihuguru said the bank’s sector focus lines up with both the National Development Plan IV and the tenfold growth agenda.
“We remain grateful for the confidence placed in UDB and for the sustained capitalisation, strategic guidance, and enabling environment that have allowed the bank to deepen its development impact across the country,” Kihuguru said.
Ojangole said UDB is working to position itself as a catalytic institution, one that pulls in long term capital, including private capital, and channels it into private sector projects as well as commercially viable government projects with clear cashflow potential.
She added that the bank is investing in technology and in its staff to improve how it operates and to make sure it can deliver on its strategy consistently.
Ojangole also pointed to UDB’s targeted programmes for small and medium enterprises, women and youth, with loan sizes ranging from UGX 50 million to UGX 720 million.
According to the bank’s own figures, UDB’s total assets nearly doubled between 2021 and May 2026, rising from UGX 1.22 trillion to UGX 2.39 trillion. Gross loans and advances more than doubled over the same period, from UGX 840 billion to UGX 1.84 trillion, backed by cumulative disbursements of UGX 3.1 trillion.
The bank mobilised UGX 1.38 trillion in funding between 2021 and May 2026. Of this, UGX 800 billion came from government capitalisation, UGX 390 billion from borrowings by development partners, and UGX 189 billion from retained earnings that were reinvested into the bank.
UDB’s cumulative capitalisation now stands at UGX 1.96 trillion, a figure the bank attributes to steady government backing, confidence from development partners, and its own decision to hold onto earnings to strengthen its balance sheet.
