Infrastructure is broadly divided into social and economic infrastructure. In the context of NDP I & II, infrastructure includes Transport and Works, Energy, ICT and Water for production sector. Government has promoted infrastructure development to open up productive sectors of the economy and to boost private sector competitiveness by reducing the cost of doing businesses and linking markets to production centres.

Accelerating accumulation of productive infrastructure services and modern technology to facilitate production and improve productivity is the cornerstone of Uganda’s infrastructure investment agenda under 2040. The transport and works sector currently implements the National Transport Masterplan (2008-2023) and the attendant policies and regulations which provide objectives and strategic direction of the transport sector. The energy sector is implementing the Energy Masterplan (2011) and Strategic Plans. The same is true for the ICT sector under the e-Government Master Plan.

Both infrastructure investment funding and outcomes have improved in the first decade of Vision 2040. The stock of paved roads currently stood at 5111[1] km in FY 2018/19 with 22 ongoing road projects that are at various completion rates. To bolster the country’s competitiveness globally and across the region, the Entebbe International Airport is under rehabilitation and expansion. In addition, four aircraft of Bombardier type were acquired and final negotiations for funding modalities of the Standard Gauge Railway are underway.

In the energy sector, the installed electricity capacity of the country has increased from 867 MW in 2014 to 1200MW in 2018. This increase is on account of completion of the Isimba Hydro Power Plant (HPP) and the refinancing of the Bujagali HPP. Similarly, the Karuma HPP (600MW) is nearing completion and this will bring electricity supply to about 1800 MW although still below the NDP II target of 2500 MW. This has resulted in increased industrial demand for electricity coupled with grid connections.

On the side of ICT, the National Backbone Infrastructure now traverses 2430 km connecting 253 MDAs and consequently, the cost of internet reduced to USD 300 per Mbps in 2016 from USD 70 in 2017. Internet connectivity has accordingly improved resulting in higher productivity on e-government platform. The improvement has been as a result of putting in place sound policies and encouraging the private sector especially in the telecom industry to invest in communication infrastructure.

Factoids:

• Uganda’s stock of paved national roads has steadily increased from18.1 percent in 2014/15 to 24 percent in FY 2019/20
• Electricity generation has almost doubled within 5- year period from 867MW in 2014 to 1254MW in FY 2019/20,
• Per capita energy consumption stands at 72Kwh in 2016.
• The proportion of internet users in the country is at 47.4 percent.

The share of arable land under agriculture is 1 percent