Overview:
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa asks Ugandans to stop mocking the national power utility UEDCL, blaming persistent power outages on years of constrained capital investment and an aging electricity grid.
KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda’s Energy Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, appealed to the public to stop mocking the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) over frequent power outages, saying the utility is “their own” and needs time to recover.
Speaking at a press briefing Nankabirwa urged patience, noting that the outages stem from a period of constrained capital investment within the electricity distribution network. This constraint coincided with the transition period as UEDCL took over sales and distribution from Umeme Limited six months ago.
The minister explained that the distribution network experienced reduced investment after years of double-digit growth in electricity consumption, averaging 10%, driven primarily by industry and new customer connections.
Nankabirwa gave UEDCL until April 2027—two years from its takeover—to adequately address the systemic challenges.
UEDCL has begun addressing the reliability issues by upgrading substations in areas including Kakiri, Kabale, and Masaka. The company has also replaced 206 faulty transformers and connected 140,000 new customers in the last six months. The company plans to refurbish nine substations, install 518 new transformers, and expand 40 medium-voltage lines by the end of 2025.
Nankabirwa also announced a three-month extension of UEDCL’s “Weterezeeee” amnesty campaign, which allows illegally connected electricity consumers to regularize their supply without penalty. The campaign targets customers on direct supply, those with faulty meters, or those whose meters were removed.
Since its launch in July, the campaign has helped 22,937 consumers regularize their connections. The effort is critical to curbing commercial energy losses, which stood at 17.15% at the end of July, significantly above the 14.59% target set by the Electricity Regulatory Authority.
UEDCL Managing Director Paul Mwesigwa previously stated that the utility plans to invest \$350 million over the next five years to refurbish the network. Mwesigwa noted that a single percentage loss in energy is equivalent to a revenue loss of about $7 million. At 17.15% loss, the revenue loss is projected to exceed 425 billion shillings, which could negatively impact end-user tariffs.