Payment at Toll centers on the Entebbe Express way hangs in balance after a section of members of the Physical Infrastructure Committee proposed that it starts after the 2021 general elections.
Uganda is expected to pay US 350 Million Dollars (approximately 1.2 Trillion shillings) which it acquired from the Exim Bank of China to construct the Kampala-Expressway. Payment of this loan is expected to be realized in the next 13 years, reason why government committed to repay the loan through tolling the 51.4km road.
Uganda was supposed to start repaying the loan in July 2019 but there was no law to enable implementation of the road tolling system, forcing government to allocate shillings 101.8 billion in the 2019/2020 budget under Treasury Operations to repay the loan.
However, UNRA is expected to toll the road effective July 2020, an activity that could stall again due to the political period that the country is entering for the next one anad a half years.
According to UNRA Executive Director Allen Kagina, the authority is currently procuring services of a company that will operate and maintain the Kampala-Entebbe Express Way toll over a period of time.
But, Kasilo County MP, Elijah Okupa, says that UNRA should have also considered local content in the search for a contractor to create jobs for Ugandans as well in the roads sub-sector. However, Kagina says that the tolling system encompasses collection and maintenance.
