Uganda Development Bank (UDB) has committed to scaling up its interventions with the 2023/23 national budget allocation to the Bank.
During last week’s 2023/24 budget reading, the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija revealed that Uganda Development Bank was capitalized with UGX 85 billion to boost economic activities for medium and large enterprises.
Currently, the total Uganda Development Bank capitalization from the government stands at UGX 1.22 trillion and it set to grow with the additional allocation more money during the next Financial Year 2023/24.
Patricia Ojangole, the Uganda Development Bank Managing Director says that the country is on a steady recovery trajectory exhibiting better and improving performance on several macroeconomic indicators.
“As the country’s national development finance institution with the mandate to catalyze Uganda’s socio-economic development, these economic gains require that we scale up our interventions that aim to boost a vibrant and sustainable private sector,” said Ojangole.
She explains that being the country’s national development finance Institution development bank, it will focus on building a sustainable Agrifood System for Uganda and promote sustainable Industrialization among other interventions to ensure improved quality of life of Ugandans.
In the 2022/23 budget, the Bank was allocated UGX103 billion which, buffered with resources from funding partners, facilitated exponential support to private enterprises resulting into a 52% increase in the gross loan portfolio that stood at UGX1,298 billion by December 2022 from UGX851 Billion in December 2021.
This growth was on account of disbursements amounting to UGX776.6 billion in 2022. Meanwhile UDB registered a post-tax profit of UGX45 billion surpassing the previous UGX 38.8 billion recorded in 2021.
Ojangole attributes the bank’s total assets growth standing at UGX 1.58 trillion since the beginning of 2022 to increased funding through capital allocations from the Government and the utilization of credit lines from funding partners which enables it to disburse credit to a tune of UGX1.4 trillion.
