Education institutions owe Umeme Shs5b in unpaid bills 

Umeme has said educational institutions hold more than Shs5b in unpaid bills. 
Speaking during the release of the company’s end of year performance report in Kampala, Mr Selestino Babungi, the Umeme managing director, said education institutions will have until the end of next year to pay more than Shs5b held in unpaid bills. 

“We shall give them a whole 2022. As they open up, we expect them to settle and pay unpaid bills. We understand they are in a very difficult situation but they must have a repayment plan now that they will be in operation in 2022,” he said. 
The revelation comes at a time when government has indicated educational institutions are expected to fully reopen in January next year, many of which will be fully reopening for the first time in about two years. 
Educational institutions have previously indicated that they are heavily indebted due to long periods of no income yet they had been servicing loans and administrative costs. 

Mr Babungi also indicated that the electricity distributor, despite Covid-19 related challenges, had registered demand for power for industrial use, which during 2021 saw demand among extra-large industries grow by an average of 11 per cent, followed by other industries which posted a demand growth of 12 percent. 
Umeme also noted growth in new customer connections, which increased to 125,744 from 57,000 in 2020 while it projects to connect at least 130,000 new connections next year.  
“We had challenges in 2020 from when Covid was reported and the subsequent lockdowns. In 2020, we had a flat growth and there was almost no growth. Electricity demand remained flat with a negligible growth of 0.6 percent,” he said. However, in the last 10 months, there had been growth in electricity demand with industries recording the highest growth. 

“The overall industrial growth is in the excess of 11 percent. The commercial category, which is a [combination] of small and medium enterprises, registered growth of 12 percent while domestic demand grew at 6.3 percent,” he said, electricity demand during the period grew by an average of 10 percent. 
According to Umeme, maximum demand now stands at an average of 760 megawatts and is projected to grow to above 800 megawatts by next year.