The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | KACITA Uganda, a business support association, has asked power supplier Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL to replace the bulk metering currently being used in Kampala arcades, saying it’s being abused by landlords to fleece traders.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) to share results of the Uganda Business Climate Index (UBCI) for the second Quarter on Thursday, Issa Ssekito, the Spokesperson of KACITA, revealed that bulk metering continues to be a source of disharmony, noting that they had shared this problem with UEDCL’s predecessor, UMEME, but it was never solved.
With this system, he said, commercial building owners are doubling and others tripling the cost of power, which not only unnecessarily increases the cost of doing business but also risks them being thrown out of the arcades in case one appears to be opposing the system.
Ssekito says individual shops ought to have their power meter to be able to pay exactly what they consume.
When this was put to UEDCL Managing Director Paul Mwesigwa, he said that while building owners should have distributed individual meters, this approach, without a monitoring system, would be untenable with the widespread problem of power theft.
He noted that they are currently working with a manufacturer of meters to develop technology that will assist them in deploying intelligence to assist them in picking up those that tap into the power once it leaves the central metering point.
Currently, and without this technology in place, he says there is nothing much that they can do for the traders.
However, in their UBCI survey that involved 1152 business owners selected from across the country, EPRC reports that at least four out of ten businesses expressed concern about the negative effects of the transition of power distribution from UMEME to UEDCL.
Rehema Kahunde, a researcher at EPRC’s macroeconomics department, said they sought to understand whether and how the transition affected Uganda’s business environment, and they asked owners whether there had been any noticeable changes in their access to electricity effective 1 April 2025 when UEDCL took over.
Among those affected, the most cited issue was the increased frequency of power outages at 74 per cent, with many, especially in the energy-reliant sectors, including manufacturing and services, saying it disrupted business.
Other notable concerns included a perceived increase in the cost of electricity, with businesses reporting that they received fewer units of power for the same amount paid compared to the period before the transition.
But, Mwesigwa says this finding may not be accurate considering that power costs have instead reduced. He explains that the number of units one receives may vary depending on what point in the month they purchase units, as there’s a tax deduction on payment that’s done once a month.
In these surveys, which started in 2012, EPRC monitors businesses involved in manufacturing, agriculture, and services.
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