Uganda, April 12 -- The government is in a financial abyss. Uganda's foreign exchange reserves have dropped, breaching the four-month import cover in the wake of huge external debt repayment.

Uganda's cost of debt servicing, for instance, has risen by 44.9 percent to Shs8. 3 trillion by June 2023, up from Shs3.7 trillion in the financial year 2019/2020. All this is pegged to Uganda's rising public debt.

Uganda has relied on external financing to replenish its reserves but now faces the dilemma of having to make debt repayments without enough inflows.

Uganda's reserves have also been dropping, partly because of payments to bilateral and commercial lenders with the Bank of Uganda's intervention to try and slow down the Shilling's depreci...