Uganda hopes to close a loan deal of up to 325 million euros with a UK government credit agency and Standard Chartered Bank to finance an airport to service its oil industry.
Crude oil reserves were discovered in the country more than 10 years ago.
However a lack of infrastructure has seriously hampered the start of production.
Tony Kavuma, chief mechanical engineer at the Ministry of Works and Transport, said Uganda had already held preliminary talks with UK Export Finance, the UK government’s export credit agency, and Standard Chartered Bank for a loan of 310-325 million euros.
He said the Ministry of Finance and the two financing organisations were negotiating the final terms of the loan agreement and signing was expected by the end of June.
Kavuma said: “We want to have this airport operational by June 2019. It’s a very tight schedule…we need it (the airport) like yesterday.”
The facility will be Uganda’s second international airport after Entebbe, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria, south of the Ugandan capital Kampala.