Uganda to boost its electricity generation

23 July 2010 – Uganda, like many other countries in Africa, faces a lack of sufficient electricity generation and this is now a major priority for Uganda.  This was told to a T&T energy trade mission, led by Thackwray Driver, chief executive officer of the Energy Chamber, now visiting East Africa.

As part of daily updates on the mission, Driver, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said the mission met with Aston Kajara, Uganda’s Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. On Tuesday—day two—the mission, accompanied by High Commissioner Patrick Edwards, met with Kajara and officials of the Uganda Investment Authority.

Currently, only around three of Uganda’s 33 million people are supplied by electricity to their homes. With a population some 25 times higher, Uganda has an installed capacity of only roughly one-quarter that of T&T, Driver stated. “To date, hydro-electricity has supplied the bulk of the nation’s electricity supply. Later in the day, members of the mission visited the Jinja hydro-electricity project some 56 kilometres east of Kampala at the source of the Nile River.