Supply of electricity key to economic growth Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The government has so far completed 9,800 electricity connections out of the 110,000 targeted connections for this year, under the Electricity Connection Policy.
The policy implementation resumed in March after a three-month suspension starting in December 2020. Electricity companies implementing the connections had already stopped their activities as early as June 2020 due to lack of cash.
When the Government accumulated arrears of Shillings103billion shillings, the Service Providers were unwilling to make newer connections before the Government settling the arrears. Following the acquisition of funds from both the government and development partners, implementation resumed in March.
The then Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Mary Goretti Kitutu announced that 110,697 connections were to be completed by the end of this year. Now, of the new connections since December, 1,502 connections were completed between April and June this year, an average of 500 per month.
This brings the total connections under the policy, to 299,843 as of the end of June 2021. This is also still far below the target that was set when the policy commenced in 2018. The target of the policy is 300,000 connections per year and is supposed to take up electricity connections to the national grid to 60% by 2027 when it ends, up from the current 30%, according to the ministry. The ministry hopes that connectivity rates will continue as the activities pick up and as more resources are got by the government, so as to meet the target.
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa says that before embarking on new applications, they are bent on clearing the backlog of about 300,000 connections, which resulted from the suspension of the policy.
The cash shortage was attributed to the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country, which saw resources diverted from many sectors to fight the outbreak. However, this also came when the Rural Electrification Agency, which implements the policy was riddled by allegations of corruption and abuse of office leading to the interdiction of top managers.
Even after the suspension of the policy, households continued applying for free connections, hoping for a normal situation soon. “Requests for new consumer connections continued accumulating and by 7th December 2020, there was a backlog of 200,500 applications for new electricity connections. The policy resumed with a dual connection system where customers with the ability to pay for their connections can pay in three […]
