Uganda Approves $36.9 Million Loan for Mbarara Cancer Centre: What It Will Treat and What Is Still Missing

Many cancer patients in Uganda still have to travel to Kampala, the capital, for specialist care.

Parliament has now approved borrowing up to €31.98 million, about US$36.9 million, from France to build a cancer centre with 138 beds in Mbarara district, in the west, so that more of them can be treated closer to home.

The first phase will offer chemotherapy, cancer surgery and diagnostic services.

Radiotherapy, which uses radiation to destroy cancer cells, is left for a later phase that the loan cannot pay for.

The loan, the site and the price tag

According to the Parliament of Uganda statement released on 5 November, Parliament approved a request to borrow up to €31.98 million from the Republic of France to build and equip a cancer centre with 138 beds in Mbarara district.

The Uganda Cancer Institute's Mbarara Regional Oncology Centre will be built on 8.5 acres at the Kihumuro campus of Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

The statement said the loan will cover about 95 per cent of the €33.58 million project cost, with Uganda contributing €1.6 million. {US$36.9 million, US$38.8 million and US$1.85 million}.

The statement also said the project provides for two ambulances and specialist training with the Gustave Roussy Institute in France.

The Committee on National Economy, which examined the request, presented its report to Parliament on Wednesday, 4 November 2026.

A long road to Kampala

Before any treatment can start, you have to reach it, and for many patients that is the hardest part.

Henry Musasizi, Uganda's Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, presented the loan request to Parliament.

The Observer reported that he first tabled the request on 29 September 2026.

According to the Parliament of Uganda statement , Musasizi cited 35,968 new cancer cases and 24,629 cancer related deaths reported each year.

He said limited specialist cancer services outside Kampala make it difficult for many patients to get treatment.

Committee chairperson Jane Avur Pacuto, who leads Parliament's Committee on National Economy, said patients face a higher risk of early death mainly because early detection programmes and adequate treatment are lacking, and that the poor and children with treatable cancers are affected most.

The committee said the centre would help detect cancer earlier, reduce the cost of travel and ease congestion at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Mulago, Kampala.

Dr Charles Ayume, the Minister of State for Primary Health Care, told Parliament's health committee in October that a patient travelling from Kisoro or Kaabong districts must bring a caretaker and faces heavy costs, The Observer reported, in a story carried by the Uganda Radio Network.

Inside the first phase

Pacuto said the first phase will provide chemotherapy, cancer surgery and diagnostic services. ,

The building will have three operating theatres, intensive care and high dependency beds for the sickest patients, and an imaging department with CT and MRI scanners, which take detailed pictures inside the body, as well as mammography for the breast, ultrasound and X-ray machines.

Dr Ayume named chemotherapy, surgical oncology and pathology.

Chemotherapy treats cancer with medicines, surgical oncology means operations to remove cancerous tissue, and pathology means examining tissue to confirm what disease a patient has.

Radiotherapy waits for phase two

This is the gap many patients will notice first.

Pacuto said leaving radiotherapy out of the designs and civil works in phase one will limit the centre's immediate clinical impact, because 60 per cent of cancer patients require radiation therapy.

Dr Ayume told the committee that the concern about an omission was not true.

He said the loan can cover only the first phase and cannot finance radiotherapy, and that the government will "start small" with basic services.

Dr Jackson Orem, the executive director of the Uganda Cancer Institute, said the reason is limited funding, The Observer reported, and that patients who need radiotherapy will for now be referred to the institute in Kampala.

A patient in Mbarara told they need radiation would therefore still make that trip for that part of their treatment.

A cancer unit already under strain

New buildings inherit the problems of the old ones, so the existing Mbarara unit matters.

The statement said the committee, citing the Auditor General, the state's chief auditor, found that only 11 of 259 approved posts at the existing Mbarara cancer centre are filled.

That describes today's service, not the staffing plan for the new one.

The committee also pointed to an estimated UG Shs83.5 billion funding gap across the Uganda Cancer Institute for cancer medicines and laboratory supplies, which Healthcare Middle East & Africa put at about US$22 million.

Nile Post reported on 21 October that MPs on an oversight visit described overcrowded wards, shortages of essential medicines and broken equipment at the cancer unit of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.

Its acting director, Dr Deus Twesigye, said it is "operating far beyond our intended capacity", and Nile Post reported about 600 chemotherapy visits there each month.

There is encouraging news too.

The Observer reported that Prof Joseph Ngonzi, the university's deputy vice chancellor, said it has trained staff, including biomedical engineers, who can run the centre.

What MPs asked for in return

Parliament approved the borrowing, and its committee attached requests.

The committee asked the government to fund recruitment and set aside its own contribution, giving priority to housing for specialist staff.

It sought a performance assessment of the French contractor, Tyllium SAS, longer equipment warranties, and quarterly reports to Parliament on construction progress, spending and delays.

It also recommended funding for mobile cancer screening, vaccination against HPV, the human papillomavirus, and community education.

For the future, it proposed shelters for outpatients and caregivers who must stay near the centre during long treatment.

Bukooli County Central MP Solomon Silwany urged Parliament to follow up on the loans it approves to see whether projects deliver what was promised.

Where the Ministry of Health stands

Dr Ayume spoke for the ministry in Parliament and before its health committee, and his remarks are set out above.

JosephMmwa.com contacted Uganda's Ministry of Health on 7 November seeking comment on the timing of radiotherapy, staffing and the opening date.

It had not responded by the time of publication.

No opening date yet

The Parliament of Uganda statement gives no opening date and no construction start.

It records approval of the borrowing, with the committee's requests attached.

The Observer reported in October that Julius Rude, chairperson of Parliament's health committee, asked for assurance that the government's contribution was in the budget, warning that without it the project could be delayed or stall.

The opening date, the staff to run the centre and the plan for radiotherapy are the three things that will decide how much it changes for patients in western Uganda.