Andy Mwesigwa Risks Losing AMESCO High School Over UGX 1.3 Billion Loan

Former Uganda Cranes captain Andy Mwesigwa could lose the school he built with his football earnings. ABC Capital Bank is moving to recover an unpaid loan on AMESCO High School in Bugwanya village, Wakiso District, and the debt has grown to UGX 1.3 billion.

Mwesigwa took out the loan to finish building the school in 2019. He signed the agreement that December, but the money did not arrive until February 2020. Two weeks later, the government announced a COVID-19 lockdown, and the timing could not have been worse.

He owed roughly UGX 480 million and kept paying whenever he could during the lockdown, sending in UGX 2 million or UGX 5 million at a time. Once schools reopened, he cleared UGX 230 million in arrears. Then ABC Capital Bank took over the loan from the original lender, and the terms changed.

Mwesigwa says the interest rate jumped from 23 percent to 30 percent, and the balance climbed from there. “We signed the loan agreement in December 2019 but I received the money in February 2020,” he said, describing how the pandemic hit right as repayments were due to start.

Andy Mwesigwa says he built AMESCO High School as his main investment for life after football, and he is struggling to understand how the debt reached its current size. He is now appealing to the government for help as the bank pushes to recover what it says it is owed.

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The case highlights a familiar problem for Ugandan borrowers: loans taken out just before a crisis, interest that keeps compounding through years of disrupted repayment, and a lender that changes hands along the way. For Mwesigwa, a former national team captain, it also raises the question of what a footballer’s post-career investments are worth once the bank comes knocking.