Umeme Shakes off Challenging Year to Deliver Good Performance
Leading power distributor Umeme navigated a challenging year to register profit for its shareholders amidst a tough COVID-19 operating environment and the regulatory lag in recovery of outstanding income. Although the profits declined, the giant utility managed to complete its capital investment programme of $75m (about UGX279b) to improve the network distribution capacity, supply reliability and operational efficiencies. The investment went into the building and upgrading 7 substations in Ntinda, Kakiri, Gulu, Mbale, Bombo and Nakawa, constructing distribution integration lines with transmission infrastructure, expansion of distribution transformer zones and conversion of 168,000 customers to prepayment metering. Some of the investments…