Uganda Government assures on Yaka metre upgrade as deadline passes

Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa has assured power consumers that their prepaid metres, commonly known as Yaka, can still be upgraded past the November 24 deadline.

Addressing journalists in Kampala on Tuesday, Nankabirwa said a total of 2.2 million customers from both Umeme and UEDCL have completed the upgrade, representing 95.1 percent.

However, she noted that around 112,000 Umeme customers and 17,122 UEDCL customers were yet to complete the mandatory software upgrade and urged them to do so promptly to avoid disruptions in their electricity supply.

She said some premises’ metres have not been upgraded because they are unoccupied, with no one to take care of them. She noted that some property owners are abroad, while others have country homes where no one is available to attend to them.

Additionally, some properties are for sale, or have legal disputes, and some individuals steal electricity, which has slowed the upgrade process.

To assist the remaining customers, Nankabirwa stated that Umeme and UEDCL have deployed technicians to continue searching for homes where meters have not been upgraded.

She also said her ministry has enhanced communication efforts by using media platforms to encourage Ugandans to upgrade their Yaka meters

On January 5th of this year, Nankabirwa informed the country that there would be a mandatory software upgrade for prepaid Yaka meters. 

This notification followed a global announcement by the Global Standard Transfer Specification Association, stating that all prepayment meters would be affected by the token identifier rollover, set to occur by November 24th. 

This would result in all prepaid meters stopping the acceptance of new tokens unless upgraded by that time. The upgrade was necessary due to the expiration of the current token identifier, which has been in use since 1993.

Jona Kiiza, the spokesperson for Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited, said that by the close of the deadline, they had generated key change tokens for all 17,122 UEDCL customers. When customers call for an upgrade, they are able to have their Yaka meters upgraded instantly.