Janet Museveni, World Bank Country Manager Discuss Education Infrastructure

The Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni met with the World Bank Country Manager to Uganda Mukami Kariuki for a discussion that focused on strengthening education infrastructure in the country by adopting an approach that aligns with the government's current development plans.

Janet, who is also the First Lady, met the manager at State House Nakasero and requested her to work with the government's current initiative of using in-house construction firms instead of hiring private firms.

"My request to the World Bank was to adjust their perspective and support the direction Uganda is exploiting to use government construction units to build all new government schools and health facilities instead of using the private contractors," the minister said Friday evening.

She hailed the Bank, which last year committed $150 million to enable greater access to higher-quality secondary education among Ugandan children -- for the continued support.

"I thank the World Bank for supporting and empowering the Ministry of Education to implement the policy of having at least one government secondary school in every sub-county and a public primary school in every parish," she said.

Kariuki, a Kenyan national, was posted to Uganda at the start of August, to lead the Bank's active portfolio currently at US$3.9 billion in commitment comprising 27 projects: 21 national and six regional operations. 

She succeeded Tony Thompson who completed his three-year tour of duty in Uganda and moved back to the World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC.