Official Resources

⇒ https://www.health.go.ug/covid/

COVID-19 Restrictions

Movement Restrictions

• Is a curfew in place? Yes.
  • A nationwide curfew is enforced from 9:00pm to 5:30am. Note that arriving and departing airline passengers will be exempt curfew restrictions when their flights take place during curfew hours.  However, drivers should have with them documentary evidence of their connection to passengers arriving at or departing from the airport in order to facilitate passage through police checkpoints enforcing the nationwide curfew.
• Are there restrictions on intercity or interstate travel? Yes.
  • Interdistrict transport is banned, beginning June 10, 2021 for 42 days.  Travel between Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono is allowed, but not between other districts.
  • Cargo trucks (with no more than two people) and registered tourist vehicles will be permitted to move between districts.
  • Public transport within a district is generally allowed at half-capacity and all passengers are required to wear masks.
  • When in public, wearing of masks is required and individuals are expected to maintain social distancing at all times.

 Transportation Options

• Are commercial flights operating? Yes.
  • Entebbe International Airport is open for regular commercial traffic.
• Is public transportation operating? Yes.
  • Public transport is allowed within a district  and between Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono. All other interdistrict transport is banned.  Operators are expected to follow sanitization procedures, passengers are required to wear masks, and seating is limited to half regular capacity.

 Fines for Non-Compliance

• Violators may face varying consequences including verbal warnings from police, being detained for a period of time, or formal arrest for disobeying presidential directives and/or for a negligent act likely to spread disease.

Economic Measures

Key Policy Responses as of June 3, 2021

FISCAL

• In FY19/20, two supplementary budgets increased the spending envelope for critical sectors and vulnerable groups by about US$270 million (0.7 percent of GDP), of which around US$76 million (0.2 percent of GDP) is estimated to have been executed. In addition, Covid-19-related spending was further increased by US$30 million (0.1 percent of GDP) through budget reallocation, while tax measures in response to COVID-19 contributed to the revenue shortfall by close to US$70 million (0.2 percent of GDP). In FY20/21, through the budget and two supplementary budgets, US$600 million (1.5 percent of GDP) were allocated for additional Covid-19 related outlays, partly driven by the delayed execution of some measures originally planned for FY19/20. Moreover, further support is planned for vaccines both in the remainder of FY20/21 (around US$139 million or 0.4 percent of GDP) and in FY21/22 (around US$132 million or 0.3 percent of GDP). Among others, the fiscal support has included the following measures:

  i. Additional funding to the health sector, including for medical equipment, masks, test kits, and vaccines;

  ii. Support to households, including food to the vulnerable and funding for agriculture inputs and entities that support the sector;

  iii. Employment support, such as through the EMYOOGA initiative;

  iv. Support to firms, including in the form of waived interest on tax arrears, deferred payments of Pay-As-You-Earn and corporate income tax and the expedited repayment of VAT refunds;

  v. The expansion of labor-intensive public works programs;

  vi. Acceleration of the development of industrial parks;

  vii. Clearance of arrears;

  viii. Import substitution and export promotion by providing funding to Uganda's Development Bank and recapitalizing the Uganda Development Cooperation.

Initially, the authorities have used US$1.3 million from their Contingency Fund in the FY2019/20 budget to finance the Ministry of Health Preparedness and Response Plan. On May 6, 2020, Uganda secured US$491.5 million in emergency financing from the IMF under the Rapid Credit Facility, of which 30 percent was provided as budget support considering the impact of COVID-19. On June 29, the World Bank approved a US$300 million budget support under the Uganda COVID-19 Economic Crisis and Recovery Development Policy Financing supporting reforms to provide immediate relief to individuals and businesses most affected by the pandemic. Also, part of the costs of vaccination is expected to be financed by COVAX. Finally, spending reallocations also contributed to the financing of Covid-19-related spending.

MONETARY AND MACRO-FINANCIAL

• The Bank of Uganda (BoU) maintained its policy rate at 7 percent in February 2021, following two consecutive 100 basis points reduction in April and June, 2020. The BoU remains committed to providing liquidity support to for a period of up to one year to supervised financial institutions in need and putting in place a mechanism to minimize the likelihood of insolvency due to lack of credit. The BoU waived limitations on restructuring of credit facilities at financial institutions that may be at risk of going into distress and has also worked with mobile money providers and commercial banks to ensure they reduce charges on mobile money transactions and other digital payment charges. All Supervised Financial Institutions (SFIs) were directed to defer dividend payments and bonuses for at least 90 days effective March 2020 to ensure capital adequacy. Other measures include purchases of Treasury Bonds held by microfinance deposit taking institutions and credit institutions to ease liquidity pressures and exceptional permission to SFIs to restructure loans as needed on a case by case basis. These measures, which remained in place until March 2021, have been extended for another 6 months starting on April 1, 2021.

EXCHANGE RATE AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• Bank of Uganda has announced that it stands ready to intervene in the foreign exchange market to smooth out excess exchange rate volatility and has done so in late March when the exchange rate overshot temporarily.

  Uganda secured US $ 491.5 million in emergency financing from the IMF on May 6, 2020 under the Rapid Credit Facility, of which 70 percent was devoted to boosting international reserves and thus preserving macroeconomic stability (see Fiscal section). On June 29, the World Bank approved a US $ 300 million budget support operation (see Fiscal section).

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