The three-year loan approved by the executive board under the fund’s Extended Credit Facility will enable the immediate disbursement of about $258 million to help support the nation’s budget following on $491.5 million in emergency support in May 2020, the IMF said in a statement Monday.
The pandemic has reversed a decade-long improvement in poverty alleviation and opened fiscal and external financing gaps, Tao Zhang, the fund’s deputy managing director, said after the board discussion.
Ugandan authorities’ program, supported by the IMF loan, “focuses on keeping public debt on a sustainable path while improving the composition of spending and advancing structural reforms to create space to finance private investment, foster growth and reduce poverty,” Zhang said.