By KT Reporter
An Ethiopian development expert has suggested the need to consider cities like Kampala as key development players by pooling the needed financing to enable them to grow.
Dr Arkebe Oqubay, who has been at the centre of Ethiopian Industrial policy-making for over 25 years, has been one of the African experts attending the Uganda Development Finance Summit in Kampala.
He equally suggested the need for the government of Uganda to strengthen Uganda Development Bank so that it can finance some of the crucial development infrastructure for the country.
It has been noted that countries across Africa are struggling to attract cheaper financing from multilateral banks. Some of the debt crises that countries like Uganda are trapped in are out of expensive loans for development. Development finance in Africa accounts for only 2.5 per cent of the world’s development finance. Why strengthen cities in Development?
At the conference, DrArkebe Oqubay, who also served as the mayor of Addis Ababa, shared how Ethiopia’s Capital has been transforming part of the country’s broader economic ambitions.
Addis, as it is popularly referred to, has since 2018 embarked on mega road projects and ambitious housing developments, some of which target the poor living in the slums. As such, some have described “Addis Ababa as a new flower in a new vase”
He said one of the reasons that Addis Ababa has flourished in the area of infrastructure is the need to stick to the construction timelines.
“Previously, for instance, roads would start construction and they would be completed in two or three years. The new shift was once construction starts, it has to be completed in three or four months.”
The new changes in Addis Ababa could be a major lesson for cities like Kampala. Usually, road works on a particular section take too long to be completed and therefore inconveniencing motorists and pedestrians.
In February 2025, a Kampala city report by the African Cities Research Consortium quoting other studies noted that heavy traffic on most Kampala City roads, result in 24,000 man hours lost per day (about 288,000 man-hours, or 52 days, lost per year) and an equivalent of 500 million Shillings lost daily with car speeds falling from an average of 28kmph to between eight and 14kmph, due to traffic jams.
It said traffic congestion in the city leads to reduced productivity of the workforce and business owners, increased commuter fares, increased road maintenance costs, as well as increased air pollution.
While Addis Ababa still faces road traffic congestion that authorities continue to battle through an array of measures, some of which have resulted in less traffic in some areas.
Arkebe revealed that the selection of major projects is based on whether they would impact the lives of the majority of the city’s residents. “When I was the mayor, in 18 months, we managed to construct five thousand classrooms fully equipped with furniture, completed in 18 months to end multiples shift in schools. There were 700,000 students in the city”
Addis Ababa boasts of having put up one of the most successful housing projects, which is considered one of the most successful experiences by UN-Habitat. The city needed 700,000 residential houses, but people were not investing in houses because the military government had nationalised all the houses.
“So we said if we have to address the housing problem, we have to address it in a way that would generate wealth. We didn’t want to develop a social housing program like in the UK and Germany, or France.
We built the housing program, that houses will be built, they will be passed to city residents. They will pay 10-15 per cent as down payments and then 85 per cent will be arranged as financing for them from Banks,” said Arkebe.
He said that some of the houses were given out in the form of a lottery for those who did not have houses. Condominium houses with multiple floors were also constructed within the city to save land. In Kampala, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) launched its five-year strategic plan for the period 2020/21-2024/25 on 29.
The plan calls for an investment outlay of 7 trillion Shillings. It envisages providing services for which Ugandans can be proud of, such as roads, junctions, signalised, social protection, neighbourhood planning, urban farming, urban regeneration and slum conversion, among other things. For many city residents, these remain more on paper than in implementation.
Why strengthen Uganda Development Bank?
Dr Oqubay suggests that Uganda should learn from other countries by allowing Uganda Development Bank to operate commercially or near commercially. “They should be able to provide long-term financing, and also with some subsidy on the interest rate. By focusing on some strategic areas. But they must also be a world-class bank if they are to survive,” said Arkebe.
Dr Arkebe, who also served as a Minister and an advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. He suggests that with development banks and development finance, the governments must appoint highly professional management board members. “That know the priority sectors, that know about banking, and then when the government gives a strategic priority, it shouldn’t intervene,” he guided.
Can Uganda Airlines learn from Ethiopian Airlines?
Arkebe’s visit to Uganda comes just as the storm settles after reports that Uganda Airlines has yet to make a profit since its revival. Having served as Board chair of Ethiopian Airlines, Arkebe urges the need for discipline by the senior government officials, including President Museveni, when dealing with the national flag carrier.
“When many ask me about Ethiopian Airlines, which I had to lead the board, and the story of Ethiopian Airlines, which is 100 per cent state-owned. Does the state have to be disciplined? The prime minister and the president must use Ethiopian Airlines. And when they travel, the minister of finance must settle the bill every month,”
The collapse of the former Uganda Airlines by partly linked to indiscipline by the political class, the airline management and members of staff.
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