The civil society in Uganda is demanding transparency in the spending of Covid-19 loans to avoid loading taxpayers with corruption-fuelled debts.

Uganda had by end of last week received about $600 million (about Ush2.3 trillion) from various lenders to deal with the Covid-19 disruption, including a $491.5 million loan from the International Monetary Fund.

According to Julius Kapwepwe, director of programs at the debt tracking NGO, Uganda Debt Network (UDN), East African governments should be guided by necessity and not the convenience of the situation brought about by the pandemic.

The NGO disputes Uganda's official debt figures and estimates the real figure could be Ush14.3 trillion before accounting for the recent borrowing.

A big chunk of the money has been given to Uganda to address health emergencies brought about by the coronavirus while some of it is directed to shore up the economy, which has been affected by lockdown measures taken by the government to curb the spread of the virus.