Selestino Babungi, the managing director of Umeme, the nation’s electricity distributor, announced that the company has strengthened its workforce by hiring, training, and retooling 500 electrical technicians.
This strategic initiative has not only enhanced the existing workforce but has also resulted in a noticeable increase in the number of customers. Babungi emphasized that prior to the recruitment of an additional 500 technicians, the electricity distributor successfully connected 10,000 customers monthly.
However, with the incorporation of these newly retooled and trained technicians, the distributor has significantly enhanced its capacity, now facilitating the connection of 21,000 to 25,000 new customers per month. This surge in the number of electrical technicians has strategically positioned the electricity distributor to effectively support the upcoming electricity scale-up program—a government- led initiative.
This program aims to provide free electricity connections to over one million consumers, with Umeme assigned the responsibility of ensuring that 600,000 out of the targeted one million consumers are connected for free between January and February 2024. In discussing the decline in energy losses for the electricity distributor, Selestino Babungi highlighted that Umeme’s energy losses decreased from 16.8 per cent in 2022 to 16.2 per cent in 2023.
He characterized this as a notable reduction in losses concerning tariff collection when compared to the challenges faced by the distributor during the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in losses of 18 per cent. Babungi underscored the significance of minimizing losses, stating, “with reduced losses, Umeme contributes more to lowering electricity tariffs for customers, placing Uganda in a favourable position relative to Kenya. Kenya has encountered and sustained losses of 23 percentage points, which is an unfavourable indicator for their energy sector.”
Babungi said the company would focus on the implementation of a new billing customer information system in 2024. This system aims to integrate prepayment and post-payment options for customers, along with customer relationship management and meter management.
This initiative is the final phase of Umeme’s digital strategy, which seeks to automate customer digital services. Babungi also highlighted a significant reduction in the cost of electricity connection fees, dropping from Shs 700,000 to Shs 470,000. This reduction has resulted in a notable increase in the number of people gaining access to electricity.
In the year 2023 alone, Umeme has connected 190,000 new customers, compared to the previous year’s 120,000 connections, leading to a remarkable 69 per cent rise in electricity connections for new customers. The success is attributed to the new online application system, streamlining the connection process and reducing bureaucracy, allowing connections to be completed within five to 10 days.
Addressing customer complaints regarding poor reception at call centers, Babungi noted that Umeme, with approval from the Electricity Regulatory Authority, is exploring the contracting of a new firm to manage the call center system. This change is anticipated to take effect in the first quarter of 2024, ensuring that customers have a positive experience when seeking assistance for electricity connection issues.
He highlighted that a significant portion of Umeme’s customers, specifically 65 per cent, utilize text and digital platforms such as Twitter now known as X, WhatsApp, and other online portals to report issues related to loose powerline connections and broken powerlines. This engagement with digital channels has proven instrumental in enabling Umeme’s technical team to efficiently address and resolve the underlying power issues.
Babungi also provided insights into the company’s future investment plans, projecting an investment portfolio ranging from Shs 70 billion to Shs 100 billion in the upcoming year 2024. These projections align with approvals from the Electricity Regulatory Authority and are intended to prepare the energy sector for reliability expansion.
This includes the uptake of new power generation projects aimed at strengthening Uganda’s energy backbone to serve the growing number of electricity consumers. Babungi reassured customers that Umeme will continue its operations normally as it prepares to wind up its concession in March 2025.
