Entebbe, Kabale, Wakiso upgraded to city status

The government has announced that come July 1, 2025, five municipal councils will be upgraded to city status.

These include Moroto, Kabale, Entebbe, Nakasongola, and Wakiso District.

Presenting the government’s budget strategy for 2025/26 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said government has already secured the resources needed to operationalise them to city status come July 1.

Cabinet and Parliament approved the creation of fifteen cities to be operationalised in a phased manner. In FY 2020/21, ten cities were operationalised, namely Soroti, Lira, Gulu, Arua, Hoima, Fort Portal, Mbarara, Masaka, Jinja, and Mbale.

“I have the honour now to announce that we have secured resources to operationalise the remaining cities, effective 1st July 2025. I, therefore, wish to implore the affected municipalities and now, cities, to be: As you start the budgeting process for FY 2025/2026, beware that there are lower local governments that will be annexed to the cities.’ Kasaija said.

Kasaija told the accounting officers currently meeting in Munyonyo that they should therefore prioritise and allocate funds for preparatory activities such as physical planning, surveying, and mapping of the gazetted areas of jurisdiction and avoid conflict with the neighbouring lower local governments.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, while officially opening the National Budget Conference for FY 2025/26 on behalf of President Yoweri Museveni, said the theme of the budget is consistent with the vision of the NRM of increasing household incomes and improving people’s standards of living to achieve social-economic transformation in Uganda.

“Starting FY 2025/26 and over the medium term, the NRM government is committed to building and expanding the size of our economy from the current GDP of USD 50bn to USD 500bn by 2040,” Nabbanja said.

She reassured all stakeholders that Uganda’s economy has fully recovered from both domestic and external shocks that previously hampered growth over the past three financial years and is now on the right growth trajectory.

“FY 2025/26 comes at the time when government is committed to lifting and growing the economy in a low middle income status guided by the tenfold growth strategy, the fourth national development plan, and the NRM Manifesto,” said the Prime Minister.