China Eximbank provides RMB 240 million government concessional loan for Phase 1 of National Transmission Backbone and e-Government Infrastructure Project (Linked to Record ID#53402 and Record ID#59750)

China Eximbank provides RMB 240 million government concessional loan for Phase 1 of National Transmission Backbone and e-Government Infrastructure Project On June 29, 2007, the Chinese Government and the Government of Uganda signed a preferential loan framework agreement for Phase 1 of the National Transmission Backbone and e-Government Infrastructure Project.

Then, on July 26, 2007, China Eximbank and the Government of Uganda signed an RMB 240,000,000 ($31,516,743.27) government concessional loan (GCL) agreement [CHINA EXIMBANK GCL N0. (2007) 23 TOTAL NO. 194] for Phase 1 of the National Transmission Backbone and e-Government Infrastructure Project.

The first disbursement that took place through this loan was on September 25, 2007.

The proceeds of the GCL were to be used by the borrower to finance a commercial (turnkey) contract [ID#00F8000610060A and 0008000610060A] between the Government of Uganda’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., which was signed on October 6, 2006.

According to the Government of Uganda’s Aid Management Platform (AMP), the loan achieved a 95.3% disbursement rate, with China Eximbank making 3 loan disbursements (worth $30,058,956.97) between 2007 and 2008: a $9,020,934.36 disbursement on September 25, 2007, a $15,103,183.52 disbursement on October 17, 2007, and a $5,934,839.08 disbursement on June 17, 2008.

According to the Uganda Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development's Report on Public Debt, Grants, Guarantees and Other Financial Liabilities for Financial Year 2021/2022, as of December 31, 2021, total loan disbursements amounted to $35,013,668.25 and the loan’s amount outstanding (including arrears) was $14,005,467.31.

This project had two components: the National Data Transmission Infrastructure (NBI) and the e-Government Infrastructure (EGI).

The purpose of NBI was to connect all districts to National Backbone Infrastructure through the laying of fiber optic cable to all major towns and the use of alternative technologies like wireless technologies to cover to the rest of the country, and to provide low cost bandwidth throughout the country through the building of the NBI.

The purpose of EGI was to connect all government ministries and some government departments into an e-government network and to provide services like videoconferencing, data and voice communication.

It involved the establishment of a Primary Data Centre for Government at Statistics House; the establishment of the Network Operations Centre in Statistics House that will monitor the entire infrastructure; and an effort to connect all government ministries and some government departments through the laying of fiber optic cable onto the e-Government Network.

Huawei was the contractor responsible for project implementation.

Phase 1 of the project involved the laying of 168 km of fiber optic cable to connect the towns of Mukono, Bombo, Entebbe and Jinja to Kampala.

Phase 1 also achieved the following: (1) laying of the fiber optic cable within Kampala and Entebbe to link 27 Ministries and Government Departments; (2) delivery and installation of communication equipment to the 27 Ministries and Departments that will form the E-Government network; and (3) Video conferencing services deployed to all the Ministries and Government Departments.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. was the contractor responsible for project implementation. Phase 1 was completed in June 2008. It suffered from higher-than-expected costs and was plagued by accusations of fraud (by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.).

The Government of Uganda’s National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) was subsequently established to oversee the implementation of Phases 2 and 3.