Uganda is set to secure a $150 million loan from China’s Export Import Bank (Exim) to enhance its internet infrastructure, as revealed by the finance ministry on Monday. This move highlights Uganda’s growing dependence on Chinese lenders, following the World Bank’s suspension of new lending earlier this year in response to Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law.

During Monday’s session, junior finance and information ministers sought parliamentary authorization for the debt, according to the finance ministry’s statement on social media platform X.

The funds are earmarked “to finance the supply, installation, commissioning, and support of the national data transmission backbone infrastructure.”

Uganda is currently in talks with Chinese export credit agency SINOSURE and Exim Bank for another loan to facilitate the construction of a pipeline crucial for exporting its crude oil to global markets.

Traditionally Uganda’s primary development lender, the World Bank halted loans to the country after President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which prescribes severe penalties, including death, for various homosexual activities.

The shifting dynamics in Uganda’s borrowing sources and the reliance on Chinese funding underscore the broader geopolitical and economic ramifications of policy decisions on international financial relationships.