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Uganda’s $800m IDB financing to include rail project

By Reuters
A railway track in rural Uganda. The country's new line will stretch to the Kenyan port of Mombasa Alamy via Reuters
A railway track in rural Uganda. The country's new line will stretch to the Kenyan port of Mombasa

Uganda has signed a $800 million financing agreement with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to support various projects, including a planned railway, that aim to boost the landlocked east African country’s trade, its finance ministry said.

The railway will connect to neighbouring Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway and on to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa.

Other projects to be financed under the three-year deal will be in sectors such as health, transport and energy infrastructure.

The agreement was signed by Ramathan Ggoobi, the finance ministry’s most senior technocrat, and IDB vice president Rami Ahmed at the development bank’s annual meeting in Algiers, the ministry said on X late on Wednesday.

Founded in 1973, IDB is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah and is dedicated to advancing Islamic finance for infrastructure and socio-economic development.

IDB has 57 member states, with Saudi Arabia as its largest shareholder.

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