When President Museveni seized power in 1986, Uganda’s economy was in ruins, damaged by years of political disturbance, a collapsing shilling, and a financial system barely holding together.
He was emerging from a five-year guerrilla war that had destroyed all tenets of economic progress, hundreds of thousands of people had died in the war and infrastructure was in shambles. The war had disrupted crop production and marketing. The roads were in an acute state of disrepair; manufacturing activity had virtually ground to a halt; water and electric power supplies were unreliable and many Ugandans had fled to exile.
Back in Kabale District, a five-year-old boy named Henry Musasizi Ariganyira was just beginning life. Today, that same man stands at the helm of Uganda’s Treasury as Finance Minister. His appointment in May closes a long arc of economic stewardship that has seen nine different Finance ministers serve under Museveni, shaping 40 national budgets and attempting to steady Uganda’s complex economy. Each minister inherited the same burden: rebuild trust, enforce fiscal discipline, and reduce reliance on foreign funding and loans.
But behind the budgets and balance sheets lies varied stories of individuals who came with energy to change and impress both their master, President Museveni, and the general public. Some lasted long enough to leave a mark, while others had stints as short as just a budget cycle.
The first experiment: A minister taking on the ruins
Uganda’s post-war government began with Prof Ponsiano Serumaga Mulema as its first Finance minister in 1986 in Mr Museveni’s first 12-member Cabinet sworn in after the National Resistance Army (NRA) overran Kampala in January 1986. He was an unusual choice in a Cabinet dominated by former guerrilla fighters. He was reportedly linked to the Democratic Party and was not among the fighters who had just emerged from the bush. No wonder, his time in office was brief, lasting only six months, and reading only one Budget speech.
Building the foundations
Dr Crispus Walter Kiyonga, the current Second Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of Government Business in Parliament, took over at a time when Uganda needed structure more than slogans. A medical doctor by profession, he helped lay the groundwork for modern revenue collection, including the establishment of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), a turning point in formalising tax administration. Dr Kiyonga, one of the cadres of Museveni’s party from the 1980s understood his dream more than Prof Mulema did. Dr Kiyonga, who was replaced by Jehoash Mayanja Nkangi in February 1992, brought in policies, including the currency reform of 1987 in which the shilling was devalued by knocking off two zeros and taking off 30 percent. A million shillings was reduced to Shs7,000. Other reforms included the structural adjustment policy, as well as divestiture and privatisation.
Mayanja Nkangi deepened these reforms. His era is remembered for strict fiscal discipline and a push for price stability, working closely with Bank of Uganda technocrats such as Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, who in 1992, was appointed Permanent Secretary in the newly merged Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, a consolidation he had strongly advocated for. The merger strengthened policy coordination and fiscal discipline, setting Uganda on a path toward macroeconomic stability. He later became the Governor of Bank of Uganda from 2001 until his death in 2022. Under his watch, the Bank of Uganda Act (1993) was passed, which strengthened central bank independence and insulated monetary policy from political interference. Nkangi’s tenure ended in 1998 and he was replaced by Gerald Sendawula.
Winning donor confidence
Ssendaula inherited a more stable but still fragile economy from Mayanja Nkangi. Ssendaula’s tenure, between 1998 and 2005, is widely credited with strengthening Uganda’s credibility in the eyes of international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. During a recent interview, Sendawula, acknowledging that the size of the economy has expanded, said managing with fewer resources required discipline, transparency, and coordination with development partners. He said clear communication about available resources helped stakeholders align expectations with reality.
He said the main challenge then was limited access to external financing, dependence on donor support, maintaining discipline in expenditure, and balancing competing demands across sectors, saying despite these pressures, strong accountability and careful planning helped sustain the system. It was a period of rebuilding trust; both at home and abroad.
Expanding access, deepening reform
Prof Ezra Suruma, who took on from Sendawula in 2005, pushed Uganda further into financial inclusion. His legacy is tied to the expansion of Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (Saccos), bringing formal credit closer to ordinary Ugandans and rural communities. He was replaced by Syda Namirembe Bbumba in February 2009, earning herself the honour of being Uganda’s first female Finance minister. She took over the ministry amid rising inflation pressures and her firm monetary stance helped stabilise the economy and earned her continental recognition as African Finance Minister of the Year in 2010. She lasted only two years and was replaced by another experienced woman, Maria Kiwanuka.
The Budget for a changing nation
Ms Kiwanuka inherited a shifting economy and focused on aligning national spending with long-term development goals. Her budgets emphasised infrastructure growth and youth employment at a time when Uganda’s population was rapidly expanding. It was during her tenure, between 2011 and 2015, that the country started allocating a big chunk of money to infrastructure development, especially roads. Although started in 2006, the Uganda National Roads Authority under Mr Sebugga Kimeze and later Ms Allen Kagina gained more prominence and received more funding.
The long tenure: Stability, shocks, and strain
Mr Matia Kasaija’s 11-year stewardship became one of the longest in Uganda’s post-independence economic history. He entered office at 71 in 2015 and exited at 82, just last month, overseeing a period marked by both bold investments and significant shocks. Before becoming full minister, he served in various roles, including State Minister for Finance (Planning) and State minister for Internal Affairs. Earlier in his career, he held positions in the private sector and public administration, including managing the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (1987-1990).
Under his watch, Uganda saw major infrastructure projects such as the Entebbe-Kampala Expressway and the revival of Uganda Airlines, a national symbol of ambition, but one later weighed down by governance and financial challenges. His most challenging period was the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic hit like a fiscal earthquake, closing borders, grounding flights, collapsing tourism, and choking trade. In response, government rolled out large-scale recovery programmes such as Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM), aimed at lifting household incomes and stimulating grassroots enterprise.
But the recovery came at a cost: rising public debt, tighter fiscal space, and growing pressure on the cost of living.
A new era begins
Now, the responsibility shifts to Henry Musasizi.
A trained accountant and seasoned legislator, Musasizi’s journey began quietly, working at Caritas Kabale and later AMREF before entering politics in 2011. From there, he rose steadily: three consecutive terms as MP for Rubanda East, chairing Parliament’s Finance Committee, and later serving as State Minister for Finance. His academic credentials include a Bachelor of Commerce from Makerere University and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University. He steps into office at a moment of mounting fiscal pressure: a Shs84.3 trillion National Budget for FY2026/2027, much of which is already earmarked for debt servicing and recurrent expenditure.
Economists warn that while the Budget reflects ambition, it leaves limited space for transformative investment. ‘The Shs84.3 trillion Budget reflects government’s ambition to finance its development agenda, but it also exposes the growing pressure on Uganda’s finances,’ said Timothy Chemonges of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA). A significant portion, he added, will go toward debt servicing; crowding out sectors that directly improve livelihoods.
Musasizi’s first major parliamentary test came swiftly: defending a pound 168.9 million loan (about Shs734 billion) for solar-powered irrigation projects, approved shortly after presentation and a day before he read his first Budget as Minister of Finance.
The weight of the office
Uganda’s Finance ministry has never been just about numbers. It has been about survival, ambition, and political endurance. From a shattered economy in 1986 to today’s trillion-shilling budgets, nine ministers have carried the same burden; each shaping a different chapter of Uganda’s economic story. Now, Musasizi inherits not just a ministry, but a test of whether Uganda’s growth can finally outpace its pressures.