Umeme starts hiring spree of over 700 staff

The company disclosed that it is planning to engage in discussions with the government to roll out a World Bank-funded Scale-up Connections project in the second half of this year.

“The programme intends to add a million connections to the grid. The additional connections require re-enforcement investments in the capacity of the backbone distribution infrastructure,” the company says in its latest 2022 annual report.

Umeme, which is majority-owned (23.34 per cent) by the National Social Security Fund, increased its total number of electricity consumers by seven per cent to 1.75 million in 2022 from 1.63 million in 2021.

The total number of employees increased by 47 per cent to 2,301 from 1,564 pushing staff cost to Shs110.95 billion from Shs102.81 billion. Umeme attributed the increase in staff numbers, including contractors, technicians and graduate trainees, to the re-organisation of the business to improve customer experience.

Umeme’s 20-year electricity distribution concession that took effect on March 1, 2005, entailed taking over the distribution and supply of electricity from the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Ltd.

The government has advised the company of its intention to let the concession run to its natural end, after which the distribution assets and mandate will revert to the government following the settlement of the contractually specified buyout amount.

After the conclusion of the concession, the government intends to roll out the second generation of reforms that include consolidating the varying electricity segments into one national utility, with minimal private sector participation.