Umeme Uganda Limited has with effect from December 14, 2022, reduced the No-Pole electricity connection cost from the current UGX 720,883 to UGX 470,000.
The company said this was done in partnership with the Government of Uganda, the Electricity Regulatory Authority, the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and the Rockefeller Foundation in the implementation of the Hybrid Financing Scheme for No-Pole electricity connections.
With the new initiative, electricity connection applicants will have an option of paying the full UGX 470,000 upfront or a minimum of UGX 200,000 upfront and accessing a credit facility of a maximum of UGX 270,000 availed under the UDB financing scheme.
The UDB credit facility at zero interest rate, is recoverable from the customer at a minimum of 15% of every electricity purchase over a period of up to 8 years, with an option of early repayment.
The Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa, noted that the Programme comes to bridge the gap caused by the partial implementation of the Electricity Connections Policy whose resources were diverted to fight COVID-19 after the breakout of the pandemic.
Over 280,000 applications for a connection could not be effected through Electricity Connections Policy after its resources were diverted to the Health Sector to fight the pandemic.
Although the Electricity Connections Policy resumed in March 2021, only 87,000 connections have been done with 200,000 of the applications still not connected to power on top of the new applications being received by the electricity utility providers.
The programme will be rolled out for Umeme Limited and the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) customers as a pilot.
In a statement, Umeme welcomed the financing mechanism, a bid by Government to accelerate grid connections at an affordable cost.
“We encourage our customers to take advantage of the scheme through submission of their applications,” Umeme noted.