Uganda Development Bank (UDB) has today launched its 2025 Development Impact Report, highlighting the tangible contribution of development finance to enterprise growth, employment, government revenue and Uganda\u2019s broader socio-economic transformation.<\/p>\n
The report assesses UDB\u2019s development impact against key indicators including employment, enterprise output, profitability, tax contribution and foreign exchange earnings.<\/p>\n
The report shows that enterprises supported by UDB continued to deliver strong economic outcomes in 2025. Collectively, Bank-supported enterprises created and maintained 69,202 jobs, a rise of 24.6% (13,649 jobs) compared to 55,553 jobs in 2024. The annual output of enterprises financed by the Bank rose by 3.4% year on year, from UGX 6.05 trillion in 2024 to UGX 6.26 trillion in 2025 while profitability among Bank-financed enterprises grew by 9.1%, rising from UGX 1.06 trillion to UGX 1.16 trillion.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the tax contribution of these businesses rose by 22.5%, from UGX 316 billion in 2024 to UGX 387 billion in 2025. UDB-supported enterprises realised UGX 1.84 trillion in foreign exchange earnings, a 66.5% increase compared to UGX 1.11 trillion earned in 2024, reflecting growing competitiveness among Bank-financed enterprises in manufacturing, agro-processing, and other export-oriented sectors.<\/p>\n
Jobs and inclusive growth<\/strong><\/p>\n Employment remains a central measure of UDB\u2019s contribution to Uganda\u2019s economic transformation. Of the 69,202 jobs created and maintained by supported enterprises, 39% were held by women, while 73% were held by young people aged 35 years and below. Persons with disabilities accounted for 0.3% of the jobs.<\/p>\n The quality and sustainability of employment also showed progress. 41% of the jobs were permanent, representing a 39% increase from 2024. The assessment further found that 62% of the enterprises surveyed contributed to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for their employees.<\/p>\n UDB\u2019s support is also contributing to greater participation by women and youth in enterprise ownership. Among the 525 enterprises assessed, women constituted 34% of shareholders and held 27% of the shares, while youth accounted for 28% of shareholders.<\/p>\n Enterprise growth and economic value<\/strong><\/p>\n The assessment found that enterprises under review generated approximately UGX 6.26 trillion in gross revenue, reflecting the growing scale of businesses supported through development finance.<\/p>\n The industrial sector accounted for the largest share of enterprise output, followed by services. Growth across the portfolio has been supported by increased production capacity, improved access to markets, investment in productive equipment, land utilisation and access to working capital.<\/p>\n The report further shows that some enterprises have grown from small-scale businesses into medium-sized enterprises, with several businesses previously supported through UDB\u2019s special programmes progressing into the Bank\u2019s mainstream lending portfolio.<\/p>\n Profitability and contribution to public revenue<\/strong><\/p>\n The businesses assessed continued to demonstrate strong financial performance. Of the 525 enterprises surveyed, 524 reported positive net profitability, generating a combined UGX 1.16 trillion in net profit after tax.<\/p>\n This growth in enterprise profitability has translated into increased government revenue. UDB-supported enterprises contributed UGX 387 billion in taxes in 2025, primarily through Corporate Income Tax and PAYE.<\/p>\n Growing foreign exchange earnings<\/strong><\/p>\n Foreign exchange earnings from UDB-supported enterprises increased significantly during the year, reaching UGX 1.85 trillion, a 66.5% increase from 2024.<\/p>\n The industrial sector accounted for the largest share, generating approximately UGX 1.48 trillion, or 80% of total foreign exchange earnings, while the services sector contributed approximately UGX 220 billion.<\/p>\n The growth reflects, among other factors, increased enterprise capacity, stronger market access and expanding activity in export-oriented sectors, including tourism.<\/p>\n Climate action and resilience<\/strong><\/p>\n Climate considerations remain integrated into UDB\u2019s strategy, project appraisal and investment decisions. The 2025 assessment found that approximately 30% of supported projects had undertaken deliberate climate-related actions, including the adoption of efficient machinery, waste reuse and recycling, wastewater treatment and tree growing.<\/p>\n At the same time, the assessment identified climate risk exposure across the Bank\u2019s portfolio, reinforcing the importance of integrating climate resilience into enterprise financing and investment decisions.<\/p>\n Development impact as UDB\u2019s measure of success<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2025 assessment was based on a survey of 525 UDB-funded enterprises, representing a 91% response rate. The assessment covered enterprises that had received financing for at least six months, allowing sufficient time for the Bank\u2019s financing to begin generating measurable economic outcomes.<\/p>\n Commenting on the report, UDB Managing Director Dr. Patricia Ojangole said development impact remains the Bank\u2019s primary measure of success.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a national development bank, we measure our performance not only by the financing we provide, but by the development outcomes that financing enables. We deploy public resources to provide affordable, patient and sustainable capital to the private sector and it is therefore important that we demonstrate the contribution of this financing to Uganda\u2019s development.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that employment creation remains particularly important given Uganda\u2019s need to accelerate inclusive economic growth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers tell an important story about the role of development finance in creating and sustaining livelihoods. Beyond the number of jobs created, we are increasingly focused on the quality of employment, inclusion of women and youth, social security and the broader economic value generated by the enterprises we support.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2025 Development Impact Report demonstrates UDB\u2019s contribution to the objectives of Uganda\u2019s Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV) particularly in advancing industrialisation, export growth, private-sector development and the transition towards a more productive and modern economy.<\/p>\n Overall, the report points to sustained growth across key development indicators over the past five years reflecting the expanding reach of UDB financing and the growth and transformation of the enterprises supported by the Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uganda Development Bank (UDB) has today launched its 2025 Development…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5127,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions\/5127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udbl.co.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}