By Mulengera Reporters
The recently published impact assessment report has called for recruitment and retention of more professional staff at Uganda Development Bank (UDB); and specifically, those with specialized expertise on development financing as opposed to those merely possessed with general banking knowledge. Authored by a group of researchers and analysts from National Planning Authority (NPA), upon being instructed by the Finance Ministry, the 160 pages’ report highlights areas where UDB has done well and where there is need for improvement.
The impact assessment survey was meant to guide the Finance Ministry and generally the GoU on reforms and interventions that need to be undertaken to strengthen UDB on the eve of the commencement of the five-year National Development Plan (NDP) 4, which came into effect in July 2025 and will be implemented up to July 2030.
The GoU believes that, being the one charged with supporting the private sector with access to long-term development financing, UDB has to play the catalystic role-spurring the country’s socio-economic transformation, hence the need to strengthen the Bank at the dawn of NDP 4.
In today’s reporting, we continue serializing the NPA report focussing on recommendations requiring UDB to begin being deliberate in recruiting staff with ‘specialized development finance capabilities.’ That this will place UDB in a better position to “design innovative concessional financing solution and support complex projects while maximizing its catalytic role in Uganda’s social economic transformation.”
Currently, 87% of UDB staff are qualified with banking, finance and accounting background who also continue to benefit from the generous staff development packages. Another 17% have qualifications in backgrounds like science, engineering, data sciences and environmental science. Less than 10% of the total of 140 employees the Bank currently has, have specialized training and expertise in development finance, which is the core mandate of UDB.
While appreciating the fact that 61% of UDB staff are highly skilled in several financial disciplines (such as general banking knowledge, accounting, agriculture, risk management, project management & applied sciences), the report observes that glaring staffing gaps remain when it comes to development finance-related specialized expertise. At the conclusion of their assessment of the Bank’s human capital profile, the NPA report authors regret the fact that at UDB, currently, “development finance expertise is the least represented within the workforce.”
Gratefully, the UDB top management has since taken note of this inadequacy and moved to mitigate the situation by commencing a collaboration with the Association of African Development Financing Institutions (AADFI) in order to build staff capacity through targeted training initiatives aimed at increasing the proportion of employees with development finance-related expertise.
The NPA assessment report concludes that this realignment will be necessary because “a more balanced mix of commercial and development finance expertise will significantly enhance UDB’s ability to deliver both financial sustainability and high-impact development outcomes.”
It adds: “By combining strong financial acumen with specialized development finance capabilities, the Bank will be better positioned to design innovative concessional financing solutions, support complex projects and maximize it’s catalytic role in Uganda’s socio-economic transformation.” (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
