Gov’t reaffirms commitment to reliability, reduced tariffs as UEDCL Holds AGM for FY 2023/24
Dr Ruth Nankabirwa
State-owned Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited ( UEDCL ) has revealed that their portfolio for investment in transformers so far has increased from the Initial plan to invest 518 to about 600 transformers.
‘’We have observed that taking March as our best period, our energy purchase from the supply of energy transmission has increased by 6%’’, said Mr Paul Mwesigwa, the UEDCL managing director during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 10, 2025, for the financial year 2023/24 ended June 30, 2024 held at Entebbe.
‘’The good thing with the final stage is of securing it, but we have started the process of procuring materials to do the CapEx as required. Now we are implementing the budget as approved of 74 million dollars and part of the financing comes from the 50 million dollars from ABSA and that is the arrangement on the ground. What we’ve discussed today also is to make sure that in the next six months by December 2025 our capital investment will be up and running’’, said Mwesigwa who assured the population that the company has stabilized in the business, as far as vending systems running are concerned, so the next step is to deploy the materials required in the field , connecting customers that were pending , transformer injections which already begun, and also pole replacement for the failing poles in order to maintain stability.
‘’So we also need to inject the same investment on the other side to keep the network reliable and stable as far as power supply is concerned. UMEME remember left 127,000 pending connections ready for connection, which we have started. Our target is to clear between 25,000 to 30,000 connections per month of that outstanding. But at the same time, there were 20,000 and above faulted transformers. We are also clearing those faulted transformers because as you connect new customers, you don’t want the faulted transformers to continue being on fault because you’ll end up losing energy. So our effort is to make sure that we clear the faulted transformers but at the same time clear the backlog’’, Mwesigwa noted further.
Mwesigwa who advised new customers to apply and they will be connecting them as they move on, revealed that their target is to make sure that they clear the backlog in the next four to five months but at the same time, they need to clear the current applicants.
‘’We’ve stocked our materials for new connections and the country is also stocking for the investment requirement to make the country move forward’’, he noted.
Mweisgwa revealed that the first financial sustainability model UEDCL is looking at is full cost recovery which may not be with a huge profit margin, but at least as a utility company they should be in position to recover the investment that they put in, plus a certain small margin to manage the macroeconomic variables.
‘’In that case, the quote of service will be achieved because the money that you invested in can be recovered and the customer benefits through the reinvestment. So we don’t want a position where our balance sheet goes down and we are unable to do the investment. That’s the first bottom line and I think we are going to achieve it with the support of the policy change which has come on board’’, he remarked.
Regarding the relationship with Umeme, Mwesigwa noted that they had some outstanding balance but they’ve done an offset strategy. And from the books, they’ve recovered the amount due from their payment to UEDCL as far as the reconciliations are concerned.
On the issue of vandalism, Mwesigwa said ; ‘’It has remained a pain. Of recent we are being attacked in the Nakasongola, Webigalo region. This week we’ve been attacked on Masaka Road around Budo and the far west towards Mbarara. So we need support from all the community that if you see or suspect somebody moving around the network, please raise the alarm. The only person to access our network should be in a UEDCL uniform with an ID or if he or she is a contractor, should be guided with the UEDCL staff or any logistics that is available. The good thing, the authorities and the police plus other security agencies are aware about the importance of keeping our network. So if we report any vandal, you will be assisted. But we also warn the vandals that please, the law is very clear. If you’re caught on the line, you will be imprisoned or taken to the courts of law accordingly’’.
The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa who chaired the AGM said the government is committed to supporting UEDCL to ensure the sustainability of power supply – a key factor for running the economy.
‘’We’ve just concluded the 20th Annual General Meeting of Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Ltd where we have been going through the audited accounts for the year ending 2023-2024 December and the good news is that the company has maintained its status of good performance with a non-qualified statement from the Auditor General. That is very good’’, noted Nankabirwa.
She said the company took over Umeme territory and so the Auditor General has done a very good work in guiding how the company is going to run and they are proud that they have noticed good progress in the initial months of UEDCL taking over Umeme.
‘’I want to give assurance to the entire country, our customers, that this company, given the support that they need, and as far as investment is concerned, to invest in the system, system upgrading and injection of transformers, because consumption has increased. And as I speak now, we’ve been told that Uganda has reached 1,031 megawatts as in consumption which is a very good thing. The other thing that we have heard from UEDCL is that we have not incurred any interactions in vending. People are able to buy power without any problems. This is a very good thing and also the fact that they are recovering’’, added Nankabirwa.
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