Umeme, National Water recognized in continental awards

NWSC’s Managing Director, Silver Mugisha is nominated in the ‘Outstanding Contribution Award.

What you need to know:

Women are also well represented amongst the award finalists and this year four ladies grace the shortlist for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Huawei, the well-known global information and telecommunication giant, is the lead sponsor for the African Utility Week Industry Awards.

Umeme and National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) are among the top continental companies recognised in African Utility Week Power Industry Awards in Cape Town.
Last year Uganda won the water utility of the year award again when NWSC won it for the second year in a row. The awards honour pioneering utilities, projects and people in the energy and water industry on the continent and offer a unique networking opportunity for engineers, stakeholders and solution providers alike.

The other Uganda entities recognised include Gou Tou Prepayment Project, Grania Rosette Rubomboras, Programme Officer: Power Projects, Nile Basin Initiative NELSAP, operating in Rwanda and Uganda.

NWSC is nominated under the category of ‘Water Utility of the Year’ where it is contending with Malawi’s Lilongwe Water Board, Kenya’s Nairobi City Water & Sewerage Company and Burkina Faso’s ONEA.

Gou Tou Prepayment Project and Umeme Limited are competing in the ‘Innovative Technology of the Year’ category with South Africa’s Asset Management Framework, Globeleq South Africa Management Services and Solar Turtle, South Africa, Nigeria’s Ikeja Smart Metering Project, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company and Kenya’s Jisomee Mita, Nairobi City Water & Sewerage Company.

Power Projects in the Nile Basin Initiative NELSAP have been nominated in the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ category. They are contending with Wim Jonker Klunne, Programme Director: Energy & Environment Partnership Programme which operates in Southern and East Africa.

NWSC’s Managing Director, Silver Mugisha, is nominated in the ‘Outstanding Contribution Award: Water’ category alongside South Africa’s Yolandi Schoeman, Managing Director, Baoberry, Kenya’s Chris Heymans, Senior Water & Sanitation Specialist, World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme and Philip Gichuki, Managing Director, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company and Tanzania’s Joyce Msiru, Chief Executive Officer, Moshi Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority.

Rose Kaggwa, Director: Business and Scientific Services, NWSC is nominee for ‘Outstanding Woman of the Year: Power/Water’ where she is pitted against Nigeria’s Agatha Nnaji, Managing Director, Geometric Power and- Chantelle Abdul, Chief Executive Officer, MOJEC Meter Company & MOJEC Power, Ethiopia’s Azeb Asnake, Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Electric Power, Botswana’s Eunice Ntobedzi, Innovator, EmPowered and South Africa’s Rethabile Melamu, General Manager, Green Economy.

This year’s African Utility Week Industry Awards in Cape Town on 17 May, gathering over 7000 decision makers in the power and water sectors from more than 40 countries to source the latest solutions and meet over 300 suppliers.

A press release shared with this reporter adds that the expo will feature free to attend technical workshops and technology demonstrations. The event has won the Association of African Exhibition Organisers (AAXO) award for the Best Trade Exhibition 6001-12000 sqm category.

“Part of the event is Energy Revolution Africa, a new platform for community scale projects, which will provide a unique forum for solution providers to meet with the new energy purchasers such as metros and municipalities, IPPs, rural electrification project developers and large power users, including mines, commercial property developers and industrial manufacturers,” the statement states, in part.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s personal assistant, Zelda la Grange, is this year’s guest speaker at the awards. She currently serves as the patron for the First for Women Foundation, is non-executive Director of the non-profit organisation Healing Hands and annually acts as a co-ordinator of Bikers for Mandela Day.

The MC for the African Utility Week Industry Awards is Claire Mawisa, well-known media personality, broadcaster and Carte Blanche investigative journalist.

Women are also well represented amongst the award finalists and this year four ladies grace the shortlist for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Huawei, the well-known global information and telecommunication giant, is the lead sponsor for the African Utility Week Industry Awards.