Museveni Can Unblock Islamic Development Bank Loan To IUIU

This is a private viewpoint.
Ugandan Muslims must be happy with President Museveni’s conduct towards the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU). So are Muslims across the globe from 57-member nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), that owns it.

They are thankful for the enormous contributions by Uganda under him for the birth, development and sustainability of this university since its inception in 1988.

In that year, with NRM government just two years old; IUIU was finally delivered. It remained the only second university to Makerere University until 1989 when Mbarara University of Science and Technology was founded. Ndejje University in 1992, Uganda Martyrs University in 1993, Nkumba University in 1994, and Uganda Christian University in 1997 pioneered the scores of other private universities in the country today.

The delivery of IUIU was welcomed as a huge relief following a long overdue gestation period—having been conceived decades earlier by president Idi Amin in 1974, but remaining a blueprint. Hence the euphoria and special manner in which it came to be.

Uganda offered a special act of parliament only for this university. This marked its first unique features from other universities in the country. The other is its line ministry being of foreign affairs even though, technically drawing policy guidelines from ministry of education and sports.

Over the years, under the support of president Museveni, IUIU has been treated as a proud child of NRM government gaining a number of opportunities. There is for example, the vast land allocations at its main campus in Nkoma—Mbale district, prime land along Kampala road—hosting the Fahd Plaza endowment and another in Nsambya, also undergoing development as an endowment asset. This is not to mention earlier external loan guarantees for infrastructure development.

In 2004, for example, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) extended a loan of US$3.9m for students hostels at Mbale. It was called IDB Phase I Project and both parliament and president Museveni approved it with the required sovereign guarantee. All along, these offers have been perceived in the sense of a responsible parent towards its lovely progeny.

Its, however, with profound shock that Muslims learnt of a recent decision by president Museveni blocking access to another IDB approved loan towards IUIU’s continued advancement. It appeared like a parent choking its young to death!

This was unusual and it severally raised questions; key being, was he misadvised this time?

The basis of his judgment was rather a new insubstantial presumption that IUIU is a private university like any other—thus could not be extended sovereign guarantee! But that fact that Uganda offered to host it, in the first place, was a commitment to grant it sovereign security of any kind.

Besides, over the years the president knows pretty well that as host nation, Uganda owns IUIU more than any other OIC member. He knows that despite being ‘Islamic’ 33% of student vacancies are today occupied by those with Christian backgrounds. Of the nearly 1,000 full time staff, more than 70% are Ugandans and others are outsourced from seven countries. On that basis, Uganda is obliged to protest any agent attempting to torpedo IUIU’s progress and not the reverse.

Early this year, First Lady and minister for education and sports, Janet Kataha Museveni, visited IUIU, to among other roles, ascertain its level of readiness for phase II of the IDB loan.

In his brief to her, university rector Dr Ahmad Kawesa Sengendo demonstrated how the IDB phase I of US$3.9m was utilized and already repaid to zero balance. It had a repayment period of 25 years and a grace period of 7 but was cleared in 12 years.

Since 2013 when IDB accepted to loan IUIU US$13.8m for phase II, it has only been waiting for another sovereign guarantee, a requirement by all multi-national financial institutions. On its part, the bank offered a grant of US$150,000 for developing the university’s master plan and already delivered it.

The now blocked loan was to facilitate expansion of the university by establishing the faculty of engineering and technology, a modern library, a new students’ hostel, video-conferencing lectures from its four campuses and capacity building for staff. It’s all blocked by stroke of a pen!

Whereas Muslims are optimistic for president Museveni to soon revisit and rescind his decision, they will think longer: Who misadvised him this time? Where had the old love disappeared?

Swaib K Nsereko,
Lecturer, Dept of Mass Communication, Islamic University in Uganda