The Government of Japan through its development arm, Japanese International Development Cooperation Agency (JICA) has given the Government of Uganda a grant worth US$ 36.58 million (about Shs 135 billion) for improving Manibe -Yumbe road in West Nile region.
Hidemoto Fukuzawa, the Japanese Ambassador to Uganda said at the signing of the grant agreement that the grant is intended to improve the roads in the refugee-hosting region so as to improve the socio-economic infrastructure and logistics in the districts of Koboko, Yumbe and Moyo.
Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance, Planning & Economic Development, who signed on behalf of the Government of Uganda said the money will be put to good use. The road works will be supervised by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) on behalf of the Government of Uganda.
Over the past few years, the Government of Japan has upped its support to Uganda specifically on road infrastructure development and improvement. The biggest on-going project funded by a loan from the Government of Japan to Uganda is the 20 billion yen ( about US$190 million) Kampala Flyer over project.
This project is intended to ease traffic flow in and through Kampala City, which in turns eases logistics flow in the Northern Corridor, which connects the Port of Mombasa in Kenya and the hinterland including Rwanda, the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.
“In recent years, the increase in traffic volume in Kampala city, accompanying the rapid rise in population and economic growth has resulted in serious traffic congestion at major junctions on roads, impacting economic growth in Uganda,” according to a JICA briefing that The Infrastructure Magazine has seen.
In October 2018, the Government of Uganda commissioned a new bridge across the River Nile in Jinja City which was built using a 14 billion yen (US$ 134 million) loan from Japan.
