Govt rushes to address power outages at Mbale Industrial Park

The Government has stepped up efforts to address the rampant power outages in Mbale Industrial Park, which have led investors into losses due to machinery breakdown.

The move follows a petition by the management of Sino Uganda Mbale industrial park, the park developers, to President Yoweri Museveni, in which they complained of unreliable power supply that has resulted into damages.

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Mary Goretti Kitutu, said a mobile substation, with the capacity of 50 megawatts, will be shifted from Tororo to Mbale, this month, to address the challenge as stop-gap measure.

Kitutu apologised to the investor for the mishap, adding that a permanent solution, under the Camce project, will see the construction of a 240 megawatts substation at the industrial park. The project is supplying power to all the industrial parks.

"We thank you for choosing to invest in Uganda. I do appeal to you to work hard to achieve your plans by attracting more investors to help us address the challenge of youth employment," Kitutu said.

The park has factories making electrical cables and other appliances, stockings and mattresses, among others, employing thousands of youth.

Under the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) policy, Kitutu directed the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL), Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and Umeme to support Victoria Cables Limited by buying their locally made materials, rather than importing.

Owen Jin, the Sino Uganda Mbale industrial park deputy general manager, said they have been using 3 megawatts power with domestic consumers and that whenever power goes off, it takes them one to three hours to start the machinery.

"We are very excited about the announcement because we need stable power to run our machinery. Many investors are not willing to come into the park because of the fear of making losses," Jin said.

Bonny Buhanga, the UETCL planning and investment manager, assured the investors of their total commitment to addressing the problem in all the 22 industrial parks.

He said similar challenges have already been addressed in Namanve South, Mukono, Kapeka and Tororo.