The government of Uganda is set to connect 15,000 households to the national grid by end of this month in a US $5m project funded by the World Bank. The World Bank grant will provide households that are unable to wire their premises with ready boards in order to make it easy for them to be connected to the national grid.
In addition, the boards which are usually wooden and sometimes metallic will be fixed with sockets, bulbs holders and switches on a single panel. The project will be implemented by power distributor Umeme and it targets to cover 15,000 households in areas including Bwaise, Banda, Kitintale, Wangedeya, Nankulabye, and Kireka.
“The World Bank has given us up to September 30 to connect all the 15,000 households in the areas highlighted,” said Umeme electricity connections policy manager Mr. Thomas Oryang. He also added that Umeme engineers will be considering one-roomed and two bedroomed houses only especially those premises that have been internally wired.
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Other selection determinants
The project will also cover areas that are prone to power accidents. Other factors to be considered are the distance of the house from the pole in order to ensure that households use one pole and not more than two.
The Ugandan government aims to increase new power connections to about 300,000 annually. According to the World Bank’s Uganda Energy Access Scale-up Project April 2019 document, the factors that hinder power connection are nature and size of concession. Other factors include service connection charges and wiring costs.
In order to address the challenges, the government decided to provide each household with a ready board as it aims to hit it’s target of 300,000 new households annually. According to Umeme at least 60,000 of the 300,000 households will be provided with ready boards starting with the 15,000 this month.
