Uganda, Feb. 29 -- In 1986, Uganda had roughly 1,900km of paved roads. In 2024, 40 years later, Uganda counted some 20,000km of paved roads, a 10-fold achievement.

The road maintenance backlog in Kampala, the capital, is 2,100km of paved roads. In 1986, Uganda exported coffee worth $400 million (worth $1.126 billion in today's dollars).

Even though the economy generally had collapsed, the machinery of government was still running. Inflation was sky-high and Uganda was navigating through instability and a long spell of famine in 1984 and 1985.

In 2022/2023, Uganda recorded $918 million worth of coffee exports, a 10 percent drop from the 1986 high.

Rolling out a national roads network has been a major narrative of Uganda's economic stra...