KAMPALA, UGANDA – The Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) Managing Director, Mr. Paul Mwesigwa, announced an ambitious target of 60,000 new customer connections for the month of September.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Mwesigwa revealed thin during a high-level follow-up meeting chaired by Dr. Patrick Birungi, Executive Director of the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), held on Tuesday, September 16, 2026, at the State House Investors Protection Unit (SHIPU) offices in Kampala.
Providing a detailed progress report, Mr. Mwesigwa confirmed that by mid-month, the state-owned utility had successfully completed 23,833 new connections.
While substantial, this figure falls short of the progressive mid-month target of 30,000, indicating the intense pressure and scale of the ongoing national rollout.
He revealed that just this past Monday, the Central, North East, and Western regions collectively delivered 1,626 new electricity connections, closing in on the ambitious daily target of 2,000 connections.
“Our September target is 60,000 new connections. By mid-month, we’ve completed 23,833 connections against a progressive target of 30,000. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to expanding access to electricity across the nation,” stated Mr. Mwesigwa.
The MD placed this monthly effort within a broader context, revealing that since April of this year, UEDCL has engineered over 119,645 new connections to the national grid.
This achievement is the result of a relentless work schedule that sees construction and connection teams operating all seven days of the week.
In a move aimed at stimulating local economies, Mr. Mwesigwa highlighted that the contracts for this extensive work have been awarded to local service providers, ensuring that investment and job creation remain within Ugandan communities.
Despite this progress, the persistent threat of vandalism and power theft by so-called ‘Kamyufu’ has prompted the company to launch the ‘Weteleze’ campaign to protect critical electricity infrastructure.
Mr. Mwesigwa made a fervent appeal to the nation, urging all citizens to remain vigilant and to actively report any instances of vandalism or suspicious activity around power infrastructure to the relevant authorities.
The gathering brought together a cross-section of Uganda’s top public sector leaders, including Mr. Benson Turamye, Executive Director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA); Professor Bruce Kirenga, Principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences.
Others are Mr. Desmond Opio, Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist at the Uganda Electricity Credit Capitalisation Company (UECCC); and Mr. Kule Walid, Assistant Commissioner of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB).
Mr. Kule Walid of URSB commended UEDCL for its successful takeover and operational performance, noting that while it was not an easy task, the results have been encouraging and deserve wider recognition.
He issued a call to action for galvanizing resources to reduce power outages, emphasizing that they remain a significant government challenge and signaling that improved reliability is the sector’s critical next step.
The meeting underscored a coordinated push by the government to ensure that significant achievements are effectively communicated to the public, fostering greater awareness and trust in national development programs.