UK’s Globespan, Uganda’s SMS Construction tapped for Entebbe hospital expansion

What the report says

Watchdog Uganda reports that President Yoweri Museveni has directed the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health to work with UK-based Globespan Infrastructure and Uganda’s SMS Construction on an expansion and upgrade of Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital. The outlet says it saw the directive, which seeks to accelerate renovation works, increase patient capacity, introduce more specialised services and consolidate the hospital’s ageing structures into one referral centre.

The hospital, located roughly 40 kilometres south of Kampala, was elevated to regional referral status in July 2019 but remains under pressure. According to figures cited by Watchdog Uganda, it has 200 beds and handled about 57,000 outpatient visits and 10,500 admissions in 2024. The report also notes that in July 2025, a parliamentary committee called in the health and finance ministers after the auditor general flagged problems including limited storage, staffing shortages and weak service delivery, with MPs told some medicines were being stored in corridors.

Globespan Infrastructure is described in the report as a firm that helps arrange financing for major public projects. Watchdog Uganda links it to the planned 36,500-seat stadium in Fumba, Zanzibar, for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, while noting that reported cost figures there have been contested. SMS Construction is presented as a Ugandan contractor with experience in health and government buildings, including work at the Uganda Cancer Institute and the Inspectorate of Government headquarters.

The reported directive matters because Entebbe hospital serves a fast-growing urban and peri-urban area and is expected to perform referral-level functions. The selection of a local company alongside an international partner also fits the government’s stated interest in strengthening domestic construction firms.