Museveni commissions Bujagali dam

By Vision Reporter

President Yoweri Museveni has criticized African past leaders and intellectuals for neglecting the energy sector a crucial tool for social transformation and modernization.

"One of the mistakes made by Africa's past leaders and intellectuals was to neglect the energy sector," Museveni made the remark while commissioning the Bujagali Hydropower project, a 250-megawatt power plant on River Nile.

The President said most African countries would now be modern economies if their past laeders had invested in power generation.

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President Museveni (L) being welcomed by Energy Minister Irene Muloni (4th R) at the commissioning ceremony of Bujagali Hydro Power project in Buikwe on Monday. Looking on is Lands Minister Daudi Migereko (3rd R).  Photo by Donald Kiirya
 

He assured Ugandans that upon completion of the last phase of the Bujagalai project, the country will not experience powers cuts again.

Some Heads of State who are in the country for the 50th Independence anniversary are also attending the function.

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President Museveni greets His Highness Aga Khan at the launch of the Bujagali dam Monday afternoon.

Photo by Matthias Mugisha

Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, ministers, MPs and members of the business community among others are present.

The multi-million dollar Bujagali hydropower project adds another 250MW onto the national grid for consumption.

Consumers will not experience load-shedding at any time as power deficit has been wiped out, at least for 24 months.

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Museveni (in beret) moves to switch on the power at Bujagali Hydro power station Monday afternoon.

The $860m Bujagali hydropower project was commissioned, unit by unit, in response to energy ministry’s strategic decision to replace the expensive thermal power generation at the earliest date and minimise load-shedding.

The move was aimed at saving the money that was used to pay the expensive thermal power operations. The level of subsidy (payment for thermal power) had reached unsustainable levels and the cumulative amount of subsidy paid out was sh1.5 trillion.