The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has promised existing UMEME staff not to worry because they are going to be retained provided they are disciplined and ready to deliver.
While handing over the license to distribute and to sell electricity in Uganda to the UEDCL board chairperson and managing director at Uganda Media centre on Tuesday, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said over 191 positions will be dropped and 2712 are going to be retained.
“The UMEME Network remains under a new system and the staff of UMEME and UEDCL should not panic as long as you are disciplined. We are going to open up room for competition with in the entities,” Minister Nankabirwa
Nankabirwa also said that with UEDCL taking over, there is going to be further extension of power lines to places that are still not accessing power.
“We are aiming at universal coverage in 2030 at 100% whether national grid or off grid. We shall expand national grids and have atleast 400,000 connections per year,” she said.
The ministers further appreciated UMEME for the service since 2005 and said it did great and helped in curbing power theft.
“Umeme performed, compared to where they got us from from 38% to 15% power loss reduction , there was improved revenue collection and because of prepaid meters the technology helped us to reduce the theft and we applaud UMEME,” Nankabirwa noted .
The Electricity regulatory authority (ERA) Cheif executive officer Engineer Ziria Tibalwa Wako also applauded UMEME for the 20 year service.
“I would like to particularly appreciate the unwavering dedication and Professionalism of the staff of UMEME limited in serving electricity consumers across the country, your good expertise has been instrumental in supporting the sectors success, “Tibalwa noted.
The ERA CEO also highlighted the significant achievements in 2024 across the value chain among which included; growth in power generation , terrific reduction, increased access to electricity, enhanced reliability in supply among others.
The contract of UMEME expires on 31st March 2025 after serving for 20 years on Uganda.
With the handover of license to UEDCL, it means that UEDCL is now the only entity in charge of distributing and selling electricity in Uganda taking over from
UMEME with direct supervision from ERA and oversight and monitoring done by the ministry of energy and mineral development.
