Government sent to borrow Shs 1.7 trillion from standard chartered to plug budget loopholes

As the economic situation worsens, government has proposed to borrow € 455.03 million (about shs 1.7 trillion) from Standard Chartered Bank and other unnamed commercial banks to finance the country’s development and infrastructure budget for the FY 2022/23.

The Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija has already submitted to Parliament a formal proposal to have this request approved.

In a letter dated October 27, 2022 seen by Nile Post, Members of Parliament (MPs) that sit on the Committee on National Economy have been notified to convene with the Ministry of Finance to consider this “urgent” request.

“Notice is hereby given that the committee on National Economy will have a meeting with the Ministry of Finance to consider the urgent assignment of scrutinising the request by the government to borrow up to Euro 455.03 million to finance the development and infrastructure budget for the financial year 2022/2023,” reads part of the letter signed by Glorious Kamayangi on behalf of the clerk to Parliament.

According to the letter, the meeting is set to take place on Monday, October 31, 2022 in the Conference Hall A, Parliament Building at 10:00am.

The MPs will be expected to communicate their position to the House on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 on

The Nile Post understands that the delivery of government services across the country has been imperilled as a result of a significant reduction in budget releases for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022/2023.

Of the anticipated Sh8.1 trillion, the Ministry of Finance only released Sh4.7 trillion in July. It did not, however, provide any information on how the remaining money will be sent.

The development budget suffered the most, with only Shs 596 billion of the anticipated Shs 2.38 trillion being released.