Umeme Chief Operations Officer Florence Nsubuga and Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer Blessing Nshaho receive materials from the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa in Luuka Kampala | RedPepper Digital – African Development Bank (AfDB) would probably bring back the long-standing lost confidence in Uganda’s electricity body; Umeme, which has faced a lot of criticism from the population in regard to inadequate or the non-supply of electricity to a section of Ugandans.
To what seems to be a sigh of relief, the Government of Uganda has secured $100m (about UGX360bn) funding from the African Development Bank to switch on some of the long-pending new electricity connection applicants under the Umeme footprint. It is against this backdrop that up to 87,500 no-pole of the 250,000 applicants, dating back to 2019, will benefit from the funding commissioned in Waibuga Sub County in Luuka District on Tuesday.
Ruth Nankabirwa, the Energy and Mineral Development Minister, said the Government is committed to ensuring that Ugandans have access to clean and safe energy.
The Government is intensifying evacuation programmes for the electricity generation and distribution to Ugandans,” she said.
The Minister cautioned the residents to desist from illegal connections and vandalism of the electricity network, which have led to death, destruction of property.
Blessing Nshaho, Umeme’s Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer, who represented Selestino Babungi, the Managing Director, disclosed that the leading utility has so far completed the connection of the 22,371 consumers of the 87,500 applicants.
“We expect to complete the pending connections by the end of this year. Under Luuka District, we have so far received 500 applications from customers who are eligible to be connected under the AfDB funding, with a target of 825 connections and a target of 2,032 connections for the Greater Iganga Area,” Nshaho said.
Nshaho also urged the local leaders to sensitize the communities that they are the owners of the electricity network and by vandalizing it, the unreliable power supply is a result and the socio-economic transformation of the community is hampered.
The African Development Bank Country Manager Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said the project will directly contribute to realizing at least 164,077 household connections out of which 87,500 customers, funded by the EU- Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund, will be installed within the Umeme footprint countrywide.
He said the African Development Bank Group is involved in the whole value chain of the Uganda Electricity Supply Industry from generation, transmission, and distribution.
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