Uganda's Extractive Sector Revenues Are Climbing, But the Real Test Is Still Ahead

Uganda's fifth Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report, launched in Kampala in late September, shows the country's extractive-sector revenues rose 25.1 percent to Shs663.24 billion, up from Shs530.17 billion the year before. It is worth being precise about what that figure actually measures. The data covers the 2023/24 financial year, a period in which Uganda had not yet pumped a single barrel of commercial oil. What grew was the money moving around exploration, licensing fees, mining royalties and field-development activity, not production revenue itself. That distinction matters, because it tells you Uganda's extractive economy is already expanding well before the country's long-promised oil era technically begins.