DEAR UMEME LIMITED: My Personal Thank You Note For Keeping the Country Running During Covid-19

Most often, when the lights go out at our home, workplace or anywhere, the first name that comes to mind, is Umeme- usually followed by negative words and expletives. But many a time, Umeme is not always the cause- sometimes, it could be an issue along the transmission lines or at one of the several generation stations across the country.

But also, there are times when Umeme has to switch off the power to carry out network upgrades- and unfortunately, given the nature of the product Umeme deals, with, people have to be switched off.

Hate Umeme or not, the fact is, that the quality and reliability of our electricity has improved and improved by leaps and bounds- but of course there is always room to do better.

For example, despite the raging Covid-19 pandemic when most companies, withheld most of their capital projects, Umeme, went ahead with its investment plan, further investing UGX279bn (USD75 million) into improving the distribution infrastructure.

The money was mainly invested in capital projects in building 7 substations of Ntinda, Kakiri, Gulu, Mbale, Bombo and Nakawa, constructing distribution integration lines with transmission infrastructure, expansion of distribution transformer and conversion of 168,000 customers to prepayment metering.

Beyond the investment, allow me to share my appreciation to the men and women at Umeme and their respective contractors, who worked throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, taking that vital connection to 36,957 more Ugandan homes, factories, hospitals etc. As a result, Umeme connections reached 1,506,920 at the end of 2020.

Worth noting is that there was an above-average growth in industrial customers, notably, a 5% increase (from 2,714 to 2,845) in medium industrial customers and another 5% increase in large industrial users- from 551 to 578 customers. Connections to extra-large industrial users, increased by 32% from 37 to 49. They may be few in number, but industrial users, together, account for 56.6% of all power sold—medium industrial users, account for 18.3%, large industrial, 20.4% and extra-large industrial, 17.9%.  For keeping our factories, running, I can’t thank you enough.    

According to the Company’s Managing Director, Selestino Babungi, Umeme, which accounts for over 97% of all electricity supply in the country, had to extend its work-shift from 8-hours to 12 hours to fit within the 12-hour night curfew especially at its contact centre and work management centre, to keep the country running.

Factories aside, there is an untold story of Umeme’s contribution to the Government of Uganda’s fight against Covid-19. To keep health facilities other than Mulago National Referral Hospital which has a dedicated line, running, during the critical Covid-19 time, Umeme had to carry out preventive inspections and maintenance on all power lines and substations that connect healthcare facilities, to enhance their performance. Emerging faults on these lines were prioritised ahead of other faults for faster restoration of supply. Healthcare facilities with pre-paid meters were replenished with credit to ensure continuity of supply.

For keeping our homes, factories, healthcare facilities and security installations running, I can’t thank the over 1,625 staff and contractors of Umeme who stayed awake and at work longer, so we could keep switched on and running.

 Yours is a thankless job, we only remember to abuse and name-call you, when the lights go off without even thinking, that you may not be the cause.

Yes, you are imperfect, just like every organisation that is run by human beings, but today, I just want to say THANK YOU.