The government has blamed Uganda’s frequent power blackouts on an overload of the national grid, saying the infrastructure left behind by Umeme -the country’s former power distributor- is inadequate to meet current demand.
Addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Tuesday, energy minister Ruth Naknabirwa Ssentamu, said Umeme stopped investing in infrastructure about three years ago when government informed the company that its concession would not be renewed after its expiry early this year year.
According to the minister, Uganda has witnessed increased demand for electricity due to high paced industrialization and more homes newly connected to the national grid.
‘Growth annually is estimated at 10 % because people are free to get connected. People are constructing, industries are also being connected. Small and medium enterprises are being encouraged by Uganda Electricity Company Limited (UEDCL), to get access to electricity and so we are seeing this 10 % annual growth in electricity demand, which is very good,’ she explained.
Nankabirwa also explained that the decision not to invest in upgrades were taken by government to manage the buyout costs, which would have been higher if new investments were put in.
‘Investment was controlled by the regulator during the time of Umeme because we wanted to end up with an affordable buyout amount,’ she said.
‘So, you constrain Umeme from investing into the system like rehabilitating the infrastructure. But UEDCL, which is waiting to take over, is also constrained from investing in a network where they have not received the license to operate.and so the conversation was really constraining us from doing something,’ she added.
On Tuesday, Nankabirwa hailed UEDCL for ‘making a bold move to upgrade the power distribution network and improving the associated infrastructure.’
She said that since taking responsibility from Umeme, UEDCL has upgraded several substations – including Kakiri, whose capacity doubled from 10 to 20 megawatts; Kaba, expanded from 2.5 to 5 megawatts; and Masaka Central, which increased from 5 to 7 megawatts.
‘I hope that the people of Masaka very soon enjoy more stable power, provided that the lines are not vandalized. As you stabilize power, the distribution network gets vandalized and you have to look for money to inject. So you move four steps ahead, one step backwards,’ she told journalists.
Meanwhile, Nankabirwa highlighted that UEDCL has since late April 2025 replaced 206 transformers that were faulty, connected 140,000 new customers, taking the total number of consumers to more than 2.4 million.
She however said the upgrades and expansions have come at a cost of inconveniences to the power consumers characterized by power blackouts.
‘I want to repeat that Ugandans will continue to experience consequential inconveniences until all the system been fully upgraded. We can’t run away from this. We need stable power. We need to work on that transformer which was mounted in 1994. Those substations which are very old are operating under overload,’ she maintained.
She added: ‘My call to them is to bear with us. These consequential inconveniences will continue but I want to assure you that they will not be forever. We are still in the transition period. A concession that took 20 years, you don’t expect you in this year to take three months to correct everything.’