Within the first six months since the government-owned Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited [UEDCL] took over the role of power distributer in the country from UMEME, it has added 648,404 new connections [customers] to the national grid, the top official has revealed.
According to UEDCL’s Managing Director, Paul Mwesigwa, the number of new connections has increased from 1,782,085 to 2,430,489 since April, when the entity took over management from UMEME, a private player whose 20-year power distribution concession couldn’t be renewed by government because of unmet targets spelt in the concession.
Mwesigwa made this announcement yesterday at State House Investors’ Protection Unit [SHIPU] during a weekly meeting that convenes leaders of government agencies to discuss government achievements and shared challenges.
Among the other achievements highlighted by Mwesigwa are an increase in the number of grid-connected households, which have significantly grown from 1,687,267 to 2,327,898 within the same period.
According to UEDCL, the grid length has also increased over the past half year from 3,431 km to 5,140 km, while the total installed generation capacity has seen an increase from 1,362 megawatts to 2,049 megawatts.
Mwesigwa also highlighted that energy losses have significantly decreased from 19.1% to a low of 16.8 percent.
“The government took a fundamental decision to take over all the privately operated concessionaires,” he said.
“That is a fundamental achievement; in that regard, the government has actually scored very well.”
The weekly meeting, now in its fifth edition, hosted by SHIPU was also attended by several other key chief executive officers of government agencies, such as Mr. Patrick Birungi, the Executive Director of Uganda Development Corporation [UDC], who also chaired the meeting.
PPDA
Benson Turamye, the ED of Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority [PPDA], was also among the leaders who attended this week’s edition alongside Prof. Bruce Kirenga, the principal of Makerere College of Health Sciences.
While Desmond Tutu Opio, a senior Monitoring and Evaluation specialist at Uganda Energy Credit Capitalisation Company (UECCC) represented the entity’s Managing director.
Other dignitaries in attendance included: Mr. Kule Walid, an Assistant Commissioner at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) who stood in for the Registrar General, as well as several staff from SHIPU.
Edward Katende, the CEO of Uganda Development Forum (UDF), and Osborn Turyasingura, who heads the secretariat for special interest groups, completed the cast of government officials present.
Mwesigwa commended PPDA for the accreditation of UEDCL, saying this move has enhanced the speed of making new connections, which he says are now much faster.
Opio shared the vision and mission of UECCC, which is mandated to catalyse access to renewable energy solutions countrywide.
“We were meant to reduce the share of biomass energy used for cooking from 86% in the Financial Year (FY) 18/19 to 50% by 2025. We are targeting to reach over 353,000 households,” he stated.
He also said UECCC is implementing the financial intermediation component of the EASP project with a ticket size of US$ 110 million, which is a subsidy scheme.
Under this, the entity has been able to partner with 27 financial institutions and 87 energy companies that sell solar equipment.
They have managed to deploy over Shs 134 billion to cut costs of the equipment after having mobilised funding to a tune of US$ 10 million from the World Bank, and other development partners from Europe, such as GIZ and the Dutch government.
Among their achievements over the past year are 20,200 solar lanterns, 306,000 home systems and 307 carbonised biomass cookstoves, as well as 1,190 solar-powered water pumps and 277 solar-powered refrigerators in far-flung districts such as Mayuge, Pakwach and collaborations with players such as Stabex, among others in the energy sector.
PPDA’s Turamye noted that vandalism is still contributing to poor access to power, especially in rural areas.
“It is a takeaway that needs follow-up,” he emphasised.
On his part, Kule commended UEDCL for the swift takeover, saying the results are really encouraging and this great achievement needs to be publicised on all mass media for the government to be visible.
Katende suggested that there should be a way to break down all these success stories that the government has achieved and publicise them on all possible platforms.
In his conclusion, the chairperson of the meeting, Birungi, made some suggestions and acknowledgements. Among these were that the level of information needed to be disseminated to the public through television, radio and newspaper as well as online and digital platforms for mass reach should be intensified.
He also revealed that they have a discussion with New Vision to have regular publication on development news, and they also intend to initiate other programmes on stations like Uganda Broadcasting Corporation [UBC].
