The Islamic Development Bank’s (IsDB) executive board has approved a 650.7 million euro ($746.2 million) loan to Uganda to help finance its standard gauge railway project, the finance ministry said late on Friday.
Uganda is raising funds for the €2.7 billion project, which has already won backing from lenders including the World Bank and the African Development Bank. It has appointed Citibank to help mobilise financing.
Construction of the railway, which began in 2024, is being carried out by Turkish company Yapi Merkezi.
The IsDB is one of Uganda’s biggest sources of external financing and, as of the end of May, had projects in the east African country worth $896.5m, government data show.
The 272-km (169-mile) line will link landlocked Uganda to Kenya’s rail network, providing access to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, through which Uganda imports most of its goods.
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