USMID Has Performed Well Amidst Challenges as More 15 New Municipalities Added, Minister Nabaakoba.

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, through the USMID program has commenced efforts to expand the urban infrastructure program to more new 15 Municipalities. The new municipalities to be developed under USMID include; Mityana, Iganga, Masindi, Rukungiri, Bushenyi-Ishaka, Kumi, Nebbi, Koboko, Kisoro, Kapchorwa, Ibanda, Njeru, Bugiri, Sheema, and Kotido.

The initial phase of USMID had a total funding of US$ 138M, and all the funds were allocated to 14 Program participating Municipal Local Governments which was used for infrastructure development and capacity building. The 14 beneficiary Local Governments were (Entebbe, Moroto, Kabale, Mbarara, Masaka, Fortportal, Hoima, Gulu, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja, Arua, Lira and Soroti).  10 of these as you may be aware have since been turned into Cities, because of the achievements they made during the USMID program.

USMID is a World Bank funded program, which has been in the country, implemented in the same Ministry for 10 years now. 
“We are working with the World Bank to see that we get funding because everyone has seen how the USMID program has worked, and we must get measures of extending holistic infrastructure across the country.” says Minister Nabakooba.
The first five years of the program was implemented by 13 Municipalities, 10 of which were converted into Cities when the additional 5 years of the program was affected from 2013- a phase that closes this December 31, 2023.

The additional financing has been implemented in 33 Local Governments that include 10 cities, 12 Municipalities and 11 Refugee Hosting districts. 
In her press briefing of 5th August 2023 at the Ministry headquarters, the Minister for Lands, Hon Judith Nabakooba promised that the new 15 Municipalities shall receive the program in 2024, and that preparations are now at the feasibility stage, ready for approval in the year 2024.

She also mentioned some of the challenges that the program has faced like delays in relocation of utilities during construction, where the utility bodies over charge and also delay.
“To ease on this, my Ministry has prepared a paper on this issue and will be seeking a harmonized policy approach for location of utilities within the right of way as a mitigation measure and clear modalities for dealing with the issue of relocation,” Ms Nabakooba said.

On the delays of work in cluster 6 which includes Mbarara city, Ntungamo and Kabale Municipality, Ms Nabakooba said, “while clustering is a good policy for the civil works, some of the contractors like the one who took up cluster 6 have had numerous challenges like cash flows, and capacity issues.”  She added that the local governments have learnt a lesson and will ensure that such lessons learned are implemented and no such incidents during procurement happen again.

Nabakooba added that while she had advised that the contractor be terminated, he run to different agencies of Government to seek arbitrartion and dispute resolution which is going on. She however warned the contractor M/s Multiplex Ditaco JV, to ensure he uses the 2 months which the IGG has given him to ensure he completes the works on time.

The table summarizes all the sub projects that were implemented under the first phase of USMID and those implemented under the Additional Financing. It shows that at the end of USMID, a total of 217.3km of roads and the associated infrastructure will have been constructed.