Uganda’s executive asked lawmakers to approve the spending of 284 billion shillings ($75 million) in a supplementary budget to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, according to information on the finance ministry’s website.
The spending proposal comes as the government enforces a lockdown and President Yoweri Museveni pledged to provide relief to citizens whose livelihoods have been disrupted the most by the pandemic. Uganda has 44 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The government of Africa’s second-biggest coffee grower cut its economic growth forecast for 2019-20 to between 5.2% and 5.7% from 6% earlier. The Covid-19 outbreak has hit several sectors including tourism, Uganda’s top foreign-currency earner.
Bloomberg