Kampala, Uganda | THE BLACK EXAMINER | The European Union is set to invest 60 million euros ($63 million) in upgrading Uganda’s Nalubaale and Kiira hydropower plant complex, located at the source of the River Nile in Jinja, to help address the financing gap in the country’s aging energy infrastructure. This complex, with a capacity of about 380 megawatts (MW), is Uganda’s oldest power plant, commissioned in 1954.
After a 20-year concession operated by South African power giant Eskom, the government regained control of the plant earlier this year. Jan Sadek, the EU’s ambassador to Uganda, announced the investment, stating that it aims to provide reliable energy for Uganda’s industrialization, but the details regarding the start date and the nature of the funding (grant or credit) were not provided.
Sadek explained that this funding aligns with the EU’s global gateways strategy, designed to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Uganda’s energy infrastructure has been underfunded, leading to widespread outages and breakdowns due to the aging network. Uganda’s total installed capacity is around 1,400 MW, primarily from hydro dams, and this will increase to 2,000 MW with the commissioning of the Chinese-built Karuma plant on the River Nile later this year. ($1 = 0.9459 euros)
