Bujagali 1 taught us to be open, competitive
Aug 21, 2007
Yesterday, the foundation stone was laid for the Bujagali Hydro-power Project at Bujagali in Jinja. Below is the speech delivered by <b>Daudi Migereko</b>, the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development
Yesterday, the foundation stone was laid for the Bujagali Hydro-power Project at Bujagali in Jinja. Below is the speech delivered by Daudi Migereko, the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development
Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda Your Highness the Aga Khan, Your Highnesses Members of the Aga Khan family, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, my colleagues, the ministers and Members of Parliament present, development partners, the leadership of akfed Sithe global, the rdcs and political leadership from Jinja, Mukono and Busoga, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, it is my pleasure and honour to welcome you all to this important ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Bujagali Project. I wish to thank His Excellency, the President for having agreed to grace this ceremony with his presence. We are equally honoured to have His Highness, the Aga Khan, whose tireless efforts in the past 50 years have yielded immense value in terms of improvement of quality of life for millions of people around the world, including Uganda. Your highness, we congratulate you upon your 50th anniversary as the Imam of the Ismaili community.
Today is an important day in the life history of the Bujagali Project. We are witnessing, the transition from the protracted project development phase to the construction phase.
We have taken advantage of the lessons of Bujagali 1, and handled virtually everything to do with this project in an open, transparent and competitive manner. That is how Bujagali Engineering Limited, the developer and Salini – the Engineering Procurement and Construction (epc) contractor were selected.
Similarly, we have attended to the concerns of the environmentalists. Unfortunately, some of them are prepared to settle for nothing short of stopping the project. Fortunately, nema and other agencies approved this project and are monitoring it.
Your Excellency, you have guided and supported us, to pursue various interventions to overcome the current power shortage. Bujagali is one of the interventions you have supported. You have also instructed us to put in place a medium to long-term plan which ensures that every Ugandan has access to electricity within the foreseeable future.
Your decision to establish and capitalise an Energy Fund, which has been widely supported by Parliament and the nrm is the clearest sign of your commitment to this goal. You have also directed expeditious recruitment, training and exposure of requisite manpower to facilitate speedy implementation of energy projects. Such strategies will ensure that we do not have to wait or negotiate endlessly in order to realise investment in the energy sector.
Indeed what we are witnessing here today is one of the fruits of that strategy.
I also wish to recognise the contribution of my predecessors, colleagues in government and the negotiating team for their critical role and input in this project.
As for bel and Salini, the negotiations were protracted, but let us now work as partners to ensure speedy completion of this project. Once a good job is done, there will be more business opportunities in the sector and country to add to the West Nile concession and now Bujagali.
The local communities in Busoga and Mukono support this project. They expect employment, business opportunities and electricity.
I, therefore, thank the World Bank group and other financiers for choosing to finance this project. This will help us meet our people’s expectations. I however, wish to appeal to other financial institutions in the country to do more and finance other energy projects being promoted by local enterpenuers. this will help us attain prosperity for all in line with the NRM manifesto.
Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda Your Highness the Aga Khan, Your Highnesses Members of the Aga Khan family, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, my colleagues, the ministers and Members of Parliament present, development partners, the leadership of akfed Sithe global, the rdcs and political leadership from Jinja, Mukono and Busoga, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, it is my pleasure and honour to welcome you all to this important ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Bujagali Project. I wish to thank His Excellency, the President for having agreed to grace this ceremony with his presence. We are equally honoured to have His Highness, the Aga Khan, whose tireless efforts in the past 50 years have yielded immense value in terms of improvement of quality of life for millions of people around the world, including Uganda. Your highness, we congratulate you upon your 50th anniversary as the Imam of the Ismaili community.
Today is an important day in the life history of the Bujagali Project. We are witnessing, the transition from the protracted project development phase to the construction phase.
We have taken advantage of the lessons of Bujagali 1, and handled virtually everything to do with this project in an open, transparent and competitive manner. That is how Bujagali Engineering Limited, the developer and Salini – the Engineering Procurement and Construction (epc) contractor were selected.
Similarly, we have attended to the concerns of the environmentalists. Unfortunately, some of them are prepared to settle for nothing short of stopping the project. Fortunately, nema and other agencies approved this project and are monitoring it.
Your Excellency, you have guided and supported us, to pursue various interventions to overcome the current power shortage. Bujagali is one of the interventions you have supported. You have also instructed us to put in place a medium to long-term plan which ensures that every Ugandan has access to electricity within the foreseeable future.
Your decision to establish and capitalise an Energy Fund, which has been widely supported by Parliament and the nrm is the clearest sign of your commitment to this goal. You have also directed expeditious recruitment, training and exposure of requisite manpower to facilitate speedy implementation of energy projects. Such strategies will ensure that we do not have to wait or negotiate endlessly in order to realise investment in the energy sector.
Indeed what we are witnessing here today is one of the fruits of that strategy.
I also wish to recognise the contribution of my predecessors, colleagues in government and the negotiating team for their critical role and input in this project.
As for bel and Salini, the negotiations were protracted, but let us now work as partners to ensure speedy completion of this project. Once a good job is done, there will be more business opportunities in the sector and country to add to the West Nile concession and now Bujagali.
The local communities in Busoga and Mukono support this project. They expect employment, business opportunities and electricity.
I, therefore, thank the World Bank group and other financiers for choosing to finance this project. This will help us meet our people’s expectations. I however, wish to appeal to other financial institutions in the country to do more and finance other energy projects being promoted by local enterpenuers. this will help us attain prosperity for all in line with the NRM manifesto.