East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA-To address the increasing demand for electricity and to develop the oil and gas reserves in the Albertine Graben, Uganda has allocated an additional Ush850b ($340m) to speed up things.
In 2011/12 budget read last week, priority will be the completion of the 250 MW Bujagali Hydropower Project and commencement of the construction of the 600MW Karuma Hydropower project, of which Ush828.6b ($331.4m) was allocated.
 Completion of preliminary work on 140MW Isimba hydropower plant, which will be developed with private sector financing was also given priority.
The budget also looks at the completion of the feasibility study of the first phase of the 600MW Ayago hydropower plant, starting of preliminary work on the construction of the Oil Refinery near Hoima, for which Ush14.7b ($5.9m) has been allocated and, the construction of a Petroleum Resources Database at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, for which an allocation of Ush7b was made.
Uganda's Finance minister Ms Maria Kiwanuka, while reading the budget last week, indicated that the projects will be funded through a multi-pronged approach that includes, the utilization of domestic revenues and implementation of the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) approach, in addition to traditional sources of financing from bi-lateral and multilateral institutions and non-concessional financing.
The Government will also continue to finance the implementation of various key projects under the energy sector particularly those under the Rural Electrification Programme.
To address the energy need, the generation capacity was installed with the commissioning of renewable power projects at the 18 MW Mpanga Power Projects, while the 6.5 MW Ishasha Power Project is expected to be commissioned later this month.
"The 3.3 MW Nyagak Hydropower project is expected to be commissioned in the course of the next year. Other mini-hydro projects under development include 10 MW at Buseruka and 1 MW at Maziba," noted Kiwanuka.
The new finance minister added that the Rural Electrification Programme made substantial progress with the completion of Low Voltage Network lines at Nabitende - Itanda and Bugeso - Iwemba power lines, Mutolere - Matinza - Nyakabaya, Kyanika - Mulora, Kitgum - Padibe - Lokung,  Budusu - Bunawale; Japdong village and Mpanga-Kamwenge-Kahunge.
The government also proposed a reduction on the excise duty on sugar by 50 percent given that sugar is a key welfare item in many households in Uganda. "This will lead to revenue loss of about Ush8.5b."