The additional government land will support the expansion of the United Nations Regional Service Centre as it takes on more administrative functions, with government projecting increased spending and business opportunities for Uganda.
Cabinet has approved the allocation of six additional acres of government land to the United Nations Regional Service Centre in Entebbe to accommodate its expanding operations and strengthen Uganda’s role as a regional hub for United Nations support services.
The land will be reallocated from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, following the exhaustion of the 20 acres currently occupied by the centre.
The expansion comes as the United Nations consolidates administrative and support functions to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs, with Entebbe taking on additional responsibilities previously handled elsewhere.
Established in 2010 under the UN’s Global Field Support Strategy, the Regional Service Centre provides administrative, financial, human resources, logistics and information and communications technology services to support UN operations.
Its mandate was expanded in 2024 to cover selected administrative and operational services beyond peacekeeping operations and the African region.
In July 2026, the centre assumed responsibility for a range of administrative and transactional functions previously managed by the Kuwait Joint Support Office, following an eight-month transition process. The transfer was intended to consolidate service delivery and improve operational efficiency across the UN system.
The Ugandan government has offered to host more UN support services in Entebbe as part of the organisation’s restructuring efforts. President Museveni conveyed the offer to the UN Secretary-General in June 2025, with the Secretary-General responding positively on July 15, 2026, according to the Cabinet brief.
The government says the expansion could bring additional economic benefits through staff expenditure, procurement and other business opportunities linked to the centre’s operations.
Figures presented to Cabinet indicate that staff spending injects approximately $40 million into the local economy annually, while local contracts account for another $33 million.
The combined $73 million in reported annual spending supports businesses supplying goods and services to the centre and its employees
. However, the Cabinet brief does not specify how much of this expenditure would increase as a direct result of the additional land.
The centre is also expected to become the largest travel ticketing office in the UN system, handling an average of about 250 tickets daily, according to the government brief.
The additional land is intended to provide the physical space needed to accommodate the expanded workload as the UN transfers more support functions to Entebbe.
For Uganda, the expansion offers an opportunity to attract more international institutional operations, support local suppliers and create demand for services ranging from transport and accommodation to information technology and other professional services.
The move builds on the centre’s established role in consolidating support functions previously performed by individual UN field missions.
By centralising administrative work, the organisation seeks to improve efficiency while allowing field missions to concentrate on their operational mandates.
Cabinet’s approval of the additional six acres therefore provides for the centre’s physical expansion as Uganda seeks to strengthen its partnership with the United Nations and attract a larger share of the organisation’s administrative operations.