Banks Approved Loans Worth UGX2.03Tn In April Out Of The Requested UGX4.074Tn-Report

The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has revealed that in April 2026, the Supervised Financial Institutions approved loans worth UGX2.053Trn out of the requested UGX4.074Trn, translating into an approval rate of 50.4 percent.

The details are contained in the Performance of the Economy Monthly Report for May 2026, that was released yesterday on the Ministry of Finance’s official website and shared on the Ministry’s social media handles.

“During the month of April 2026, credit approved for disbursement by lending institutions amounted to UGX2,053Trn out of total loan applications worth UGX4.074Trn, translating into an approval rate of 50.4 percent. Although the loan approval rate declined for the second consecutive month in April 2026, it remained above the rate recorded at the beginning of the calendar year (38.7 percent), indicating that lending activity remained relatively supportive despite the month-on-month decline,” as noted in the report.

Government provided a breakdown of the sectors where the approved loans went to, revealing that most Ugandans acquired Personal and Household Loans, a sector that continued to account for the largest share of approved credit in April 2026, receiving 32.0 percent of the total, up from 26.7 percent received in March 2026.

This was followed by Building, Construction and Real Estate (14.2 percent), Trade (12.1 percent), Business, Community, Social and Other Services (10.5 percent), and Mining and Quarrying (10.1 percent).

The Ministry of Finance also revealed that Uganda has witnessed loan approvals to the mining and quarrying sector increase significantly in April 2026, a trend Government argues reflected growing investment activity and financing needs associated with the extractive industries, supported by heightened expectations surrounding developments in the oil and gas sector as well as continued activity in gold-related activities.

In a related development, the report also highlighted also provided an update on the stock of outstanding private sector credit that grew by 1.8 percent to UGX26.434Trn in April 2026, up from UGX25.965Trn in March 2026.

“The expansion reflects continued resilience in economic activity and sustained demand for credit by the private sector, although the pace of growth moderated compared to the previous month. The growth in outstanding credit was further supported by lower domestic lending rates and reduced lender risk aversion following improvements in loan performance as indicated by the decline in non-performing loans,” as cited in the report.

In the same report, the Ministry of Finance also provided an update on Uganda Revenue Authority’s domestic revenues collections, revealing that in April 2026, taxes worth UGX2.747Trn were collected, representing a 90.7 percent performance against the UGX3.027Trn target for the month.

In the breakdown provided, of the total collections, UGX2.540Trn was tax while UGX206.62 billion was other revenue (non-tax revenue) collections.

The report stated, “Tax revenue collections fell short of UGX2.725Trn target by UGX185.11 billion as all the three tax heads namely direct domestic tax, indirect taxes and international trade taxes were below their planned targets for the month. Direct domestic taxes recorded a shortfall of UGX40.79 billion against the target of UGX906.21billion. This underperformance was largely driven by lower-than-expected collections from Pay As You Earn (PAYE), corporate income tax, and rental income tax. The decline in PAYE collections was mainly due to the decline in chargeable income, and number of employers that filed as well as reduced donor funding during the month.”

The Ministry of Finance further revealed that in May 2026, Government’s expenses amounted to UGX4Trn compared to the programmed expenses of UGX4.290Trn resulting in a performance of 93.2 percent.

“This performance was on account of the lower than planned spending under purchase of goods & services, domestic interest payments, social benefits and other expenses during the month. However, grants to other General Government units exceeded the plan by UGX15.47 billion. This performance was largely due to transfers for; Parish Development Model (PDM), capitalization of institutions and financing schemes that happened within the month.”

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