Ziria Tibalwa, the Chief Executive Officer of Electricity Regulatory Authority
Ugandans should brace themselves for tougher times after Umeme exit. This is after Ziria Tibalwa Waako, the Chief Executive Officer of Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) cast doubts on Government’s preparedness to take over from Umeme in April 2025, citing the delays by Government to secure the US$50 Million (Shs183.2bn) investment required by Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited.
She made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on National Economy, during the scrutiny of the US$190 Million loan from Stanbic Bank Uganda, for the buyout of Umeme Limited. Tibalwa also attributed the current power blackouts on the “abnormal” clauses in the Umeme concession agreement that bars Government from intervening, until the concession comes to its natural end.
“On our side, we aren’t even ready with the US$50 Million for UEDCL to start, let alone, the Concession agreement wouldn’t allow UEDCL to step in. This is a learning process for Government that as we continue as Government in engaging in new contracts, we need to find ways of flexibility and escape routes where UEDCL should have started working hand in hand with Umeme, where UEDCL would invest long before the concession agreement,” said
“Why is Umeme investing the last minute? It is because they operate a live network. For example, if today Parliament is off and the transformer is blown, do you wait for April 2025 when UEDCL is here? I don’t know whether it is coincidence, but in the last one month, we have had serious outages. We had vandalism, the whole Western Uganda went off, we had two cables that gave way on Entebbe. If we were to say that in the last one month, they (Umeme) they do nothing, we would be stuck.
