Forget about all the Covid-19 lockdown and the worries about the hard hit sector – Tourism by the Coronavirus pandemic and all its related impacts on the industry.
Great news reaching our tourism and travel desk indicates that, the African Develepment Bank recently approved a lumpsum of approximately $71.5m (about sh262b loan facility towards the upgrade of vital tourism roads as this is intended to add a boost to livelihoods that sustain their living on tourism activities.
A press statement released on December 04th clearly states that the African Development Fund (ADF) board endorsed the lumpsum to work on two sections of the roads in the Southwestern Uganda region covering areas of Kabale –Bunyonyi – Kabeho – Kisoro and Mgahinga Road a total of (34Km) as the most important development objective of the project is to stimulate the growth of tourism and socio-economic development in the Southwestern region of the Country and also increase on foreign exchange earnings and attract private tourism and hospitality investors in the areas of tourism activities.
This project is prospected to increase school attendance and rural area connectivity as disbursement will be under the ADF-15; AfDB’s concessional lending booth.
The credit facility is 86% of the project’s total cost and the Government will meet the remaining $11.9m (about sh43.6b).
The African Development Bank Director for infrastructure and urban development, Amadou Oumarou, revealed that the credit facility will result into economic opportunities for Uganda.
He says; “This innovative and integrated infrastructure development project is poised to increase market development, widen business opportunities, and scale up food productivity. This would also enhance income levels in southwestern Uganda’’.
Development offshoot
Head-quartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the African Development Bank foresees that the involvement will have a balancing methodology.
This clearly reveals that it bind investment in road renewal with investment in farming and other infrastructure. It is purposed to increase market access for farm produce, productivity in a rural part of the country and strengthen social welfare.
Expected outcomes include improved tourism earnings, higher farm gate prices for commodities, increased school enrolment and stronger hospital attendance in the project area.
This credit facility is inline with the third National Development Plan 2020/21-2024/25 under Vision 2040. It is also consistent with AfDB’s 10-year Strategy 2013-22, Pillar I of ADF-15 strategic priorities, as well as two of the High-5s operational priorities: Feed Africa and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.
Stakeholders view
Mr. Allan Ssempebwa the Public Relations Manager for Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) added that the procurement process for Kabale-Lake Bunyonyi and Kisoro-Mgahinga park roads had already been instigated.
He further reveals that, “This is awesome news and means a lot to Uganda in the get-up-and-go to achieve socio-economic transformation mostly through facilitating the development of significant infrastructure projects.
He noted that; “The Government entered into partnership with the bank to finance selected tourism roads such as Kabale-Lake Bunyonyi, Kisoro-Mgahinga to influence access to the gorillas and Namagumba-Budadiri road to provide access to the area where tourists are expected to start trekking to the highest point of Mt Elgon.
Mr Stephen Asiimwe, former CEO of UTB said on Saturday last week that; “Tourism is about referrals and you need comfort and accessibility. If you have bad infrastructure, the tourists will not return because of bad experience’’.
He also added that, “We should also fix our roads, airfields, drainage, bridges, information technology which is also the critical infrastructure. Someone flying for 12 hours to Entebbe airport and they encounter a bad road is not fair for them as tourists.
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