{"id":9244,"date":"2021-04-28T16:12:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T16:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=9244"},"modified":"2021-04-28T16:10:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T16:10:07","slug":"a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","title":{"rendered":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major creditors including China and the World Bank to negotiate a possible suspension of loan repayments amid a growing default risk after its debt load ballooned 35 per cent in a single year.<\/p>\n

\u201cUganda\u2019s total public debt surged to $18 billion as at December 2020, a 35 per cent rise from a year earlier, fueled by fresh borrowing to cover revenue shortfalls as measures taken to combat the coronavirus hit the economy hard and stifled tax collections\u201d, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country\u2019s debt load is seen surging past 50 per cent of GDP by the end of the current financial year in June\u201d, Kasaija was quoted.<\/p>\n

And Uganda is not alone. \u201cUganda is joining fellow African countries including Ethiopia, Zambia, Chad and others that are facing debt pressures either triggered or exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

As it happens, almost exactly two years to this date, your columnist wrote in another publication on this issue of an Africa up to its neck in foreign debts, and at that time the spectre of the Chinese taking away our ports, railways, lands, and even children because we can\u2019t pay them back. The argument was that, historically, despite the pain, some good has come from debt. How? Below, is a slightly edited argument made then:<\/p>\n

If we go just 30 years back, the progress that Africa has collectively made over this period owes to a large extent to a similar debt crisis of the 1990s.After the end of the Cold War, the easy ideological money countries used to get for being either in the western or eastern camp dried up. Years of corrupt one-party and military dictatorships, and ill-conceived attempts by politicians and bureaucrats to run economies, left a shell. Most things had collapsed.<\/p>\n

Agriculture was kaput. Store shelves were empty. The \u201cnation building\u201d industries had folded. Debt forgiveness became the big thing, and African governments formed long queues outside the World Bank and IMF with begging hands stretched out.<\/p>\n

They were desperate times. At that time, the arrival of a World Bank or IMF delegation could only be compared to what we saw when Barack Obama visited Africa when he was US president. Potholes were filled, and lavish receptions were laid on.<\/p>\n

That dramatic shift of power from African State Houses to the World Bank\/IMF and western donors, ended up in the much-hated austerity programmes. But it also produced some benefits that decades of activism, campaigning and even war, had failed to get. The reason is that African politicians and governments don\u2019t respond positively to pressure, argument, and the threat of being murdered by rivals who have gone to the bush to fight them in a guerilla war. The one thing that gets them to act most is empty coffers.<\/p>\n

When there is no money to feed the big men, their entourages, their armies and intelligence organs, their parties, and to buy off problematic chaps they can\u2019t kill and feed to the crocodiles, that is when they yield.<\/p>\n

Rare is a government that will say, \u201cokay, we are producing 50 per cent of the food we need, let\u2019s undertake reforms to increase that to 75 per cent in five years\u201d. Broke African governments in the 1990s allowed not just economic reforms, but also wrote new human rights laws; opened up schooling for more girls; freed media; established revenue collection agencies; allowed pseudo-independent electoral commissions and courts; and even multiparty politics, all so they could get a cheque from donors and the IMF\/World Bank, and feed themselves.<\/p>\n

I do know of a single instance of a government that suffered a bout of selfless enlightenment and said, \u201cthe press is 50 per cent free, let\u2019s change the law so its 90 per cent because it empowers citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Going on past and current record, the only major source of reforms to create new wealth and improve lives could be when the IMF, World Bank, and Beijing put pressure on a delinquent African nation that can\u2019t pay back its loans, and the president who no longer has money to appease his guards, to undertake reforms (e.g., expand intra-Africa trade, build irrigation) in exchange for debt rescheduling. Today some activists are seeing the possibility of a repeat.<\/p>\n

This, however, also has to be a moment of shame for all sides. We got debt forgiveness, and endless rescheduling of repayments, years ago, and we should have cleaned house, and not be crawling back grovelling for another round. Secondly, the pro-democracy and good governance camps, should not be hoping that conditionalities and external pressure, will again force their autocrats to reform. We\u2019ve been there before, so they should take it with their eyes closed.<\/p>\n

Mr Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer and curator of the \u201cWall of Great Africans\u201d. Twitter@cobbo3<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major creditors including China and the World Bank to negotiate a possible suspension of loan repayments amid a growing default risk after its debt load ballooned 35 per cent in a single year. \u201cUganda\u2019s total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-9244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nA broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019 - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\"},\"wordCount\":827,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\",\"name\":\"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019 - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019 - Uganda","description":"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019","og_description":"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019","datePublished":"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019"},"wordCount":827,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Uganda","uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","files","homepage-english"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019","name":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019 - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-28T16:12:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Uganda Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Monday told Reuters news agency that the government may approach its major cred ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/04\/img-608988bf3232b.jpg","width":720,"height":480,"caption":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/a-broke-uganda-might-bear-good-fruit-a-view-from-2019#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A broke Uganda might bear good fruit: A view from 2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}