The Board of Directors of the African Development Funds on Sunday approved a $31.6 million COVID-19 Crisis Response Support Program (CRSP) to Uganda to support the government’s response to the novel #coronavirus. The funds are designed as budget support within the framework of the Bank Group’s COVID-19 Crisis Response Facility.
This was basically to support Uganda’s efforts to contain the human cost of COVID-19, mitigate its social and economic impact, and support economic recovery. The proposed operation seeks to achieve three short-term and medium-term outcomes such as;
· Enhance the capacity to test and treat COVID-19 patients to reduce the risk of infection and morbidity.
· Ease the impact of the lockdown and other COVID-19 related measures on the poorest.
· And mitigate risk to medium-term macroeconomic stabilization and economic resilience. Uganda’s economy has been hit by the COVID-19 Pandemic both directly and indirectly with tourism, trading, manufacturing industries badly affected.
Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development projects a decline in growth to 3.1% for 2019/20 from 6.5% in 2018/19. Uganda is currently facing an additional challenge of a deadly invasion of desert locusts, which is posing a threat to food security and exacerbating the country’s vulnerability during this pandemic. The Government of Uganda has responded to the crisis with a broad financial package aimed at tackling the COVID-19 health emergency and supporting economic activity. "The government allocated resources to the health sector, expand social safety net programs, and provide targeted support to the impacted economic sectors." Kennedy Mbekeani, the Bank’s Country Manager for Uganda says.
Bank support through the COVID-19 Crisis Response Support Program will provide financing to the budget for targeted spending, aimed at containing and mitigating the health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authorities are committed to full accountability on crisis-related spending including through ex-post audits of COVID-19-related spending.
Uganda confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 21 March 2020. To date, Uganda’s coronavirus confirmed cases stand at 1,115 cases, 982 recoveries and 2 deaths.
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