STANDARD Chartered Bank has expressed interest in financing Uganda’s planned Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, following unsuccessful attempts to secure credit from China. This development was confirmed in a statement from President Yoweri Museveni’s office on Thursday.
During a meeting with President Museveni, Sanjay Rughani, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank’s Ugandan unit, conveyed the bank’s interest in the project. The delegation included Faruq Muhammad, the bank’s global head of structured export finance, among other officials.
‘We have submitted our interest to finance many other projects such as SGR,’ Rughani was quoted as saying in the statement.
The proposed 273-kilometre (170-mile) railway is expected to significantly reduce shipping costs for landlocked Uganda by connecting it to Kenya’s SGR, which extends to the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa.
In 2015, Uganda signed an agreement with China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) to implement the project, contingent on securing funds from the Chinese government. However, after years of unproductive negotiations, Uganda terminated the agreement last year and has since initiated talks with Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi to undertake the project.
This shift in financing strategy highlights the challenges Uganda faces in securing investment for large infrastructure projects and the potential for new partnerships to drive development.
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