Dr Musenero gives UEDCL two weeks to power Kamuli cassava plant

NAMASAGALI — The Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) has been given two weeks to connect Dei BioPharma Ltd’s cassava processing plant in Kamuli District to the national power grid, after prolonged electricity shortages hampered full-scale production.

Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero issued the directive during a visit to the facility on Wednesday, where she met UEDCL officials to find a solution to the plant’s power challenges.

The facility, owned by Dei BioPharma proprietor Dr Matthias Magoola, has been ready for commercial production for about one and a half years but has depended on diesel generators, according to the company. President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the plant on 20 November last year.

Dr Magoola, who took the minister on a guided tour of the plant, said the company spends about Shs15 million to run one generator for a single shift, making full production too costly.

“It has been painful having completed this facility for about one and a half years. We started production in June last year when we began testing it, but we have been using very expensive means of running generators,” Dr Magoola said.

He said the plant requires more than 5 megawatts (MW) to operate at full capacity but is not yet connected to the national grid.

Dr Musenero said the government would not allow a major industrial investment to remain idle for lack of electricity.

“I am a hands-on minister, and my coming to this facility demonstrates that. I called my team at UEDCL to find a solution to this problem,” she said.

She said the government had given itself two weeks to address the power challenge at the plant.

“We are not only working to solve the power problem at this plant. We want to ensure that unreliable electricity supply is no longer a challenge to industries,” Dr Musenero added.

Dr Magoola said after the visit that UEDCL had committed to connecting the plant and upgrading the infrastructure, including replacing conductors, within two weeks.

“They have assured us that this will be done in two weeks. When you come back here, you will be shocked because we are going to start full production,” he said.

He said the lack of a grid connection had also limited the company’s ability to process cassava consistently. According to Dr Magoola, the plant requires about 500 metric tonnes of cassava daily, sourced from Busoga and other areas including Teso, Arua, Gulu, Lira and Bukedea, but production has been limited to about once a week.

“We have been buying cassava from everywhere, but because of power we produce once a week. Even with that production, we are not getting the required quantities of cassava,” Dr Magoola said.

He said full-scale production would create about 50,000 direct jobs and provide a major market for cassava farmers. The company says it plans to manufacture more than 100 products from cassava and eventually expand processing to other crops, including sweet potatoes and maize.

The Kamuli plant processes cassava into pharmaceutical-grade starch and industrial sugars, including glucose, maltose and fructose. Dr Magoola said the products would supply the Dei BioPharma pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing complex in Matugga, Wakiso District, with the rest to be exported.

“Our campus in Matugga cannot produce vaccines and drugs without the products we produce here,” he said.

The plant, which the company describes as a US$50 million investment, sits within the Dei BioPharma Advanced Agro-Processing and Biotech Park on a 5,000-acre estate at Namasagali, launched by President Museveni on the same day he commissioned the factory.

According to the company, the park is part of a US$10 billion, 10-year investment plan that includes pharmaceutical, veterinary vaccine and biotechnology production, a 1,000-bed hospital for sickle-cell and cancer treatment, an organic fertiliser plant using animal waste, and a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine facility with a planned capacity of 100 million doses a year.

Dr Magoola said all these facilities would require a reliable and adequate electricity supply to operate.