(Posted 21st June 2026)
The Islamic Development Bank has granted Uganda a record loan amount towards the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway project, valued at over 659 million Euros. The loan was approved during the 51st IsDB Group Annual Meetings held in Baku from 16th to 19th of June under the banner headline, “Regional Integration for Sustainable Prosperity.”
The IsDB financing will be used for some of the most critical and expensive components of the railway, including the 553-metre Jinja Nile Bridge, the 2.12-kilometre Mbuya-Kampala tunnel, six stations in Tororo, Iganga, Jinja, Lugazi, Kampala East and Kampala City, as well as three workshops in Kampala East, Jinja and Tororo.
The loan approval comes as Uganda seeks to secure financing for the 272-kilometre Malaba-Kampala Standard Gauge Railway, whose total cost is estimated at approximately Shs11.34 trillion (€2.7 billion).
The railway, once complete, will connect Uganda’s capital city Kampala via the border with Kenya to Naivasha, Nairobi and on to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and aims to massively reduce freight cost from the port to Uganda and the African hinterland countries of South Sudan and Eastern Congo.
The project in Uganda is undertaken by Turkish engineering firm Yapi Merkezi which was awarded the construction contract for the railway. Yapi Merkezi has previously delivered Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway on time and on budget after, like in Uganda, replacing failed efforts by Chinese companies.
