Nabbanja commissions sh240m power projects in Butebo
The projects, implemented by the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL), include the extension of the electricity distribution network to Petete Primary School, a church, surrounding households and the town council offices.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has commissioned electricity projects worth more than sh240m in Butebo District, in an investment expected to improve power reliability for homes and public institutions. (Courtesy photo)
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Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has commissioned electricity projects worth more than sh240m in Butebo District, in an investment expected to improve power reliability for homes and public institutions while supporting emerging industrial and agro-processing activities.
The projects, implemented by the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL), include the extension of the electricity distribution network to Petete Primary School, a church, surrounding households and the town council offices.
The initiative also saw the installation of a new 100kVA transformer for a mini-industrial park under construction in Kabarekere village, near St Paul High School.
The commissioning took place on October 3, 2026, as part of the events during a thanksgiving ceremony held in Petete in honour of Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero.
For Butebo, the investment comes at a time when commercial activity is expanding and demand for electricity is rising, particularly from businesses looking to venture into agro-processing and other productive activities.
UEDCL Managing Director Eng. Joselynne Rwabwogo said the company deliberately installed the larger transformer in Kabarekere to meet the electricity needs of the developing industrial site and the businesses expected to operate there.
The new transformer replaces a situation in which the site depended on a 25kVA single-phase transformer about 600 metres away, a supply UEDCL said was inadequate for the mini-industrial park's anticipated electricity demand of about 48kW.
With the 100kVA transformer now in place, the industrial park will have substantially greater capacity as construction progresses and businesses begin to take up space. The intervention at Petete primary school addresses a different but equally pressing gap.
The school had already been fully wired for internal electrical use, but had remained without a connection to the national grid.
UEDCL's network extension has now brought the school onto the national grid while simultaneously extending the benefit to Petete Church, nearby households and the town council offices.
The result is an electricity project designed not only around individual connections but around the wider needs of a growing community.
Frequent outages
Rwabwogo acknowledged the challenges caused by frequent outages, saying the company was pursuing both immediate interventions and longer-term infrastructure upgrades to ease network constraints and respond to growing electricity demand.
“These interventions reaffirm our commitment to strengthening the electricity distribution network, improving reliability and delivering better quality power to customers across the country,” she said.
The utility has also embarked on a nationwide stakeholder engagement campaign, bringing together local leaders and customers to discuss service delivery challenges, strengthen collaboration and gather feedback on how its operations can be improved.
In Butebo, the expectation is that improved electricity supply will do more than light homes and institutions.
With the mini-industrial park taking shape and agro-processing activity growing, the new infrastructure is expected to provide some of the power needed to turn local production into more viable commercial activity.
For a district seeking to expand its economic base, the sh240m investment, therefore, marks a significant step from connecting communities that were previously underserved to putting the electricity capacity in place for businesses to prosper.