EPRC e-library
June 2025
Uganda’s Business Climate Slightly Improves and Businesses Remain Optimistic
The Business Climate Index (BCI) improved marginally by 3.7 index points from 88.8 in the previous quarter (January-March 2025) to 92.5 in the current quarter (April-June 2025). Increased business activity, sales turnover, profitability, and improved selling prices are responsible for the slight increase in business sentiment during the current quarter. The improvement in perceptions of business conditions appeared across all business segments, but was more pronounced among large businesses, mainly attributed to the continued growth in consumer demand, especially around the Easter season in April. At the sectoral level, business sentiments within the service sector registered sligh...
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April 2025
Agricultural Finance Yearbook 2024
The 2024 Agricultural Finance Yearbook, which is the thirteenth edition in the series, offers the key highlights of Uganda’s Agricultural financing environment. The theme for this edition is “Achieving sustainable financing of Agriculture leveraging Wealth Creation Funds”.
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April 2025
Building bridges: Aligning Women Enterprise Investment and Farmer Realities under Uganda’s Parish Development Model
The Parish Development Model (PDM) aims to transition subsistence households into the money economy through localized investments at the parish level, with each parish receiving UGX 100 million annually to support enterprise development, particularly for women, youth, elderly, persons with disabilities, men and other vulnerable groups. However, over 40 percent of PDM beneficiaries continue to switch from the intended enterprises, which is likely to impede the success of the programme. Farmers have switched from high-value enterprises such poultry, piggery, and coffee to low-value enterprises due to long turnaround time, weather vagaries of pests and diseases, and market access constraints...
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April 2025
Rising New HIV/AIDS Infections Among Women in Uganda and the Growing HIV Funding Gap
While Uganda has registered significant progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS over the past decades, new HIV infections remain high, with some segments of the population disproportionately affected. This policy brief highlights the differences in the new HIV infections between women and men of different age groups, geographical locations, HIV testing and implications of growing HIV funding gap on the target to achieve zero new HIV infections by 2030. The results show that new HIV infections are on a rise among women and declining among men across all age groups, new HIV infections are higher among the cities, a higher proportion of men have never tested for HIV than women, and the growin...
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August 2023
Diabetes costs the Ugandan Government and households UGX 2.2 trillion annually
The IDF regards Uganda as one of the 48 countries with a growing diabetesrelated health issue. With a prevalence of 4.1 percent for all types of T2DM (diagnosed and undiagnosed) in Uganda in 2019, 1.69 million Ugandans have T2DM. It is costly to manage and treat T2DM. The brief highlights that in 2022, diagnosed T2DM management and treatment cost the government and households a total of UGX 2.2 trillion, the burden falling more on households. Oral drugs and OPD consultations were the key cost drivers for treating T2DM without complications. At the same time, diabetic eye treatment of laser and cataract type, haemodialysis, and strokes drove the high costs of T2DM-related com...
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October 2023
How can renewable energy development trigger violent conflict in Uganda?
Renewable energy consumption and production are rising across African countries, and Uganda is no exception. Uganda relies on a mixture of sources to meet the energy needs of its population. According to the World Bank, less than half (42%) of the Ugandan population has access to electricity. As a result, most Ugandans rely on biomass to meet their daily energy needs. Electricity generation has historically been based primarily on hydropower and remains so due to its large riverine resources (including the Nile River). The government’s Renewable Energy Policy of 2007 and its 2022 Energy Policy both prioritize increasing the country’s use of renewable energy sources. U...
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February 2024
What does the low uptake of the Small Business Recovery Fund mean for women enterprises in Uganda?
In 2021, Uganda established the Small Business Recovery Fund (SBRF) to support micro and small businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the fund has experienced low uptake, particularly among women-owned enterprises, highlighting persistent challenges in accessing capital and resources for business recovery and growth. A recent survey by the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) identified several barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in accessing SBRF loans, including stringent collateral requirements, limited access to banking services, and disparities in loan amounts. We propose policy actions to address these issues, including increasing awareness among women abo...
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August 2023
Diabetes costs the Ugandan Government and households UGX 2.2 trillion annually
The IDF regards Uganda as one of the 48 countries with a growing diabetesrelated health issue. With a prevalence of 4.1 percent for all types of T2DM (diagnosed and undiagnosed) in Uganda in 2019, 1.69 million Ugandans have T2DM. It is costly to manage and treat T2DM. The brief highlights that in 2022, diagnosed T2DM management and treatment cost the government and households a total of UGX 2.2 trillion, the burden falling more on households. Oral drugs and OPD consultations were the key cost drivers for treating T2DM without complications. At the same time, diabetic eye treatment of laser and cataract type, haemodialysis, and strokes drove the high costs of T2DM-related com...
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May 2023
Skilling Uganda’s youth for the fourth industrial revolution
The Global South is home to 90% of young people worldwide, and by 2030 young people will make up almost half of Africa’s population (El Habti, 2022; GCA, 2021). This youth bulge is an opportunity for Global South countries to take advantage of a larger pool of potential workers to foster economic development. However, limited access to quality education, skills training, and economic opportunities limit the ability of Global South countries to harness this youth bulge (UNDESA, 2015; Gage, 2018). In fact, over 70 million youth globally are unemployed, with young people in the Global South twice as likely to be unemployed or underemployed as compared to the Global North (D’Al...
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February 2024
What does the low uptake of the Small Business Recovery Fund mean for women enterprises in Uganda?
In 2021, Uganda established the Small Business Recovery Fund (SBRF) to support micro and small businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the fund has experienced low uptake, particularly among women-owned enterprises, highlighting persistent challenges in accessing capital and resources for business recovery and growth. A recent survey by the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) identified several barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in accessing SBRF loans, including stringent collateral requirements, limited access to banking services, and disparities in loan amounts. We propose policy actions to address these issues, including increasing awareness among women abo...
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