Cabinet Approves Shs139bn French Loan for Mbarara Cancer Centre

What the report says

Cabinet has approved a €31.98 million French loan, about Shs139 billion, to finance construction and equipping of the Uganda Cancer Institute’s Mbarara Regional Oncology Centre, according to Nile Post. The decision was taken at Cabinet’s eighth meeting chaired by President Yoweri Museveni at State House, Entebbe, on Monday.

The planned centre is intended to expand specialised cancer care in western Uganda and reduce the need for patients to travel to Kampala for diagnosis and treatment. Government figures cited in the report say Uganda records about 36,000 new cancer cases each year, while only 8,764 patients accessed services at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Mulago in 2025. The article also says most patients arrive for care when the disease is already at an advanced stage, making treatment more difficult and expensive.

ICT and National Guidance Minister Justine Kasule Lumumba said the numbers show the need to bring services closer to communities. She said the Mbarara facility would strengthen access to diagnosis and treatment, along with referral systems, prevention, outreach and early detection in the region.

More broadly, the report places the loan within a wider set of Cabinet decisions announced the same day, including preparations for Uganda’s final ministerial meeting under its current Non-Aligned Movement chairmanship and plans to procure and distribute fertilisers to farmers. The cancer centre project is part of the government’s wider effort to decentralise specialist health services and ease the financial burden on patients and families.