Interim mayors demand additional funding for new cities

Jinja, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Mayor of Jinja municipality Majid Batambuze has tasked government to ensure immediate funding of the newly created cities.

Seven regional cities namely; Jinja, Arua, Fort Portal, Mbale, Mbarara, Gulu and Masaka started operations on Wednesday. However, the interim leaders have stressed inadequate funding as a major tool for the transformation of the newly created administrative units.

Speaking at the event to launch the new cities held at the Jinja City hall on Wednesday, Majid Batambuze who is also the chairperson of the urban authorities association of Uganda-UAAU noted that, regional cities are meant to balance development within the country which involves increased funding to boost service delivery.

Batambuze argues that trade within the traditional municipalities was retarded due to inadequate infrastructure however, with the creation of new cities, more roads should be constructed to improve regional transportation of goods and services.

Raphael Magyezi, the Local Government Minister says that plans are underway to lobby additional funding to supplement the already approved municipality budgets.

Magyezi adds that they are also devising means of training city technocrats and politicians to create alternative sources of revenue collection other than over-reliance on the central government for support.  

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga challenged interim leaders to workout strategic development plans aimed at eliminating the creation of slums within the new cities.  

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