President Museveni commits Shs125 billion to empower health workers

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has pledged Shs125 billion to the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SACCO) to enable health workers to access affordable credit, upgrade their professional skills and create employment opportunities.

The President made the commitment on Friday, October 9, 2026, while meeting medical interns from the current cohort and leaders of the Uganda Medical Association, led by its president, Dr Frank Asiimwe, at State House Entebbe.

President Museveni said he would support the doctors’ proposal for a Shs125 billion fund from which health workers could borrow to finance further training and establish their own businesses.

He described the proposal as a smart investment, noting that the fund would constitute a one-time intervention rather than a recurring government expenditure.

“Regarding the issue of wanting Shs125 billion where the doctors can borrow and, if possible, employ themselves, that one I will support. This is not recurrent. It is a one-time process. Even that is a smart move, and I will support it,” he said.

The President explained that the fund would also enable doctors who wish to pursue further specialisation through private institutions to access financing, while the government would continue prioritising its own areas of specialisation.

“Regarding the Shs125 billion, it would cater for training if she or he wants to upgrade, you go there privately, but the government should have its own specialisations it is looking for,” he said.

President Museveni also faulted the Ministry of Education and Sports for linking graduation from medical school to the completion of internship, saying the two processes should be treated separately.

He said the policy, which requires medical graduates to complete their internship before graduating, was a mistake that needed to be corrected.

“I think it was a mistake. I think it was wrong for the Ministry of Education to say that you don’t graduate as a medical doctor until you have done this housemanship course. It was a mistake to mix the two, and it will be corrected. We shouldn’t waste time on that,” he said.

In the long-standing debate over medical interns’ allowances, the President questioned why individuals or institutions that had sponsored students throughout their medical training would withdraw support during the one-year internship period.

He, however, said the matter remained open for further discussion, emphasising the need to consider the interests of interns alongside the government’s financial capacity.

“I am not closing the debate, but let’s weigh these issues out and think about them,” he said.

President Museveni added that the government would pay the available Shs2 million in allowances this year as discussions on the broader question of intern remuneration continued.

“I am not persuaded that someone sponsored you for five years and they abandon you for one year. What I am looking at is the issue of employing people who have graduated fully as much as possible. This year we are going to pay a little money, Shs2 million allowances, but we shall continue the discussions about this matter,” he said.

The President’s remarks come amid years of disagreements between medical interns and the government over allowances, deployment and working conditions.

In 2021, President Museveni announced that medical interns should receive a monthly allowance of Shs2.5 million. However, the government later cited financial constraints and reduced the allowance to Shs1 million.

The government also proposed that private sponsors who had financed students’ medical education for five years should continue supporting them during the one-year internship, arguing that the interns were still in training.

Medical interns rejected the proposal and staged strikes that disrupted services in several regional referral hospitals.

President Museveni said government interventions must be guided by affordability and sustainability, invoking a proverb commonly used in Ntungamo to illustrate the importance of matching commitments to available resources.

“I have listened to the MoU, and it is good. In whatever we do, we always look at affordability and sustainability. The two points. This is where I take you to Ntungamo people who will tell you the hen takes what it can swallow. If it takes what it can’t swallow, it may die in the process,” he said.

He recalled that during Amanya Mushega’s tenure as Minister of Education, about 11,000 students qualified for university admission, but Makerere University could accommodate only 2,000.

The President said he had advocated for private sponsorship to enable more qualified students to access university education instead of being denied opportunities because of limited public funding.

“On one hand, it is admitting that I can swallow only 2,000. However, why block the 9,000 if they can sponsor themselves? The families struggled and got money. Today there are thousands,” he said.

President Museveni also expressed support for tax exemptions for health workers and proposed establishing a duty-free arrangement for essential items that support the delivery of health services.

“I also support the idea of tax exemption of the life savers. I don’t see what we lose if we say, let’s leave these ones. So if we say no more tax, whatever you are getting is all yours, and then we introduce the service shop where we can have a duty-free shop for life-supporting items. This will consolidate the public service health services,” he said.

UMA hails proposed financial support:

Dr Asiimwe thanked President Museveni for committing financial support to the UMA SACCO and for providing medical interns with an opportunity to present their concerns directly to him.

He revealed that the Shs1 billion the President extended to the UMA SACCO in 2017 had grown to Shs13 billion, demonstrating the potential of the initiative to improve health workers’ access to financial services.

Dr Asiimwe emphasised the importance of public-private partnerships in medical training, deployment, promotion, accountability, monitoring, quality control and data sharing.

He noted that many Ugandans receive medical care from private health facilities and urged the government to continue recognising doctors working in both public and private institutions.

He added that UMA was committed to strengthening professional accountability and was working with the Ministry of Health to address absenteeism among health workers.

Dr Asiimwe also requested that the President institutionalise two face-to-face meetings with the association annually to review and align priorities in the health sector.

On the welfare of medical interns, he said they were frontline health workers who report for duty in August and provide services around the clock, despite being classified as students.

He raised concerns that approximately 300 interns had not received their allowances.

“Resolving the welfare and training of interns, residents and fellows, you mentioned that they should be given Shs2.5 million allowance. It was reduced to Shs1 million, and as we speak, 300 of these frontline workers didn’t even get that money. These interns report in August, and they work 24/7. It is unfortunate that interns are classified as students,” he said.

Dr Asiimwe proposed the introduction of three additional professional cadres—Chief Consultant, Principal Consultant and Senior Consultant—below the Director General level to strengthen career progression for doctors.

He also called for the recognition of all doctors, regardless of whether they work in public or private facilities.

The UMA president further asked the government to raise staffing levels in referral hospitals to 75 per cent by the next general election and establish a retirement package for health workers comparable to those provided to men and women in uniform.

He also appealed for government support to establish regional medical hubs with capacities of between 50 and 100 beds to provide mentorship and practical training for young doctors.

The Minister of Health, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, thanked President Museveni for his continued commitment to improving the country’s health sector.

He said Uganda had registered progress through government policies and programmes, including universal education, which had contributed to expanding the number of universities training doctors from one to 13.

He also cited immunisation programmes and interventions against HIV as key contributors to improvements in life expectancy and reductions in infant and maternal mortality.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwiine, said the ministry regularly held consultations with stakeholders but had to prioritise its activities within the resources allocated to it.

“We prioritise within what we are given, and we can’t go beyond what we are given. When the ministry gets the money, we send it to the sites that are training the interns. The disbursement modality, once it changes, we can release money per month,” she said.

Dr Atwiine added that consultations on the outstanding issues were ongoing and that the ministry was preparing a paper to present to Cabinet for consideration.

At the end of the meeting, medical interns welcomed the President’s commitment to addressing their concerns and pledged continued cooperation with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in improving healthcare delivery in Uganda.

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