Uganda

Getting Electricity in

Uganda

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Uganda.

This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

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  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Umeme
  • City: Kampala

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Hire Electrical contractor in possession of an electrical permit from Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) to provides internal wiring clearance certificate to customer

The customer has to obtain an internal wiring clearance from an electrician who is in possession of an electrical permit from Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA). The wiring certificate confirms that all wiring has been done according to the standards on internal wiring established by the regulator. The certificate is a requirement for the application with the utility.

The procedure for obtaining an installation permit is as follows: There are various categories of permits depending on the qualification of the candidates and the complexity of installation, with respective application fees. The candidate has to apply for this permit with UEDCL, and will be interviewed. This permit has to be renewed annually. Only contractors with this Installation Permit can undertake electrical installation work.
Agency: ERA 		1 calendar day no charge
2 Submit application letter to UMEME and await site visit

Licensed contractor, with valid Installation permit from Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) on team provides a wiring certificate, confirming that all wiring has been done as per code. Application form will include details such as name, zone, type of service; whether domestic, commercial or otherwise, telephone number etc. The passport size photo and the Wiring Certificate will be attached to this form. The customer is also required to sign a declaration form at the back of the application form. This form states the conditions of supply. The fee of Shs. 40,000 is for the inspection to be conducted by UMEME. Where Way-Leaves are required, the letter of consent will be issued and both the person authorizing and the prospective customer will be required to sign on it. If it’s a company, the company official stamp will suffice instead of a passport photo; There is a requirement for a simple location sketch of the premises highlighting nearby other major known installations.
Agency: UMEME 		15 calendar days no charge
3 Receive external site inspection from UMEME installation inspector and await estimate

Utility inspector conducts external site inspection to ascertain location of poles, distance from nearest source of electricity supply. He also verifies the layout design of electrical connections at this time. The inspector also verifies the Eathing level of the customer at the terminal box. If the results are poor, then a customer is advised to improve on the earthing done by licensed wiring contractor.
Agency: UMEME 		15 calendar days no charge
4 Submit inspection fee to UMEME and receive internal wiring inspection

This is the fee for the site inspection, and needs to be paid at the utility in cash. The installation inspector/surveyor will visit the site to verify whether the wiring conforms to the requirements of the company. This will take about 3 days. The customer pays for inspection fee to the Utility company and you be allocated an Engineer who handles the file within a period of one week. This is paid to the Utility company cash office.
Agency: UMEME 		30 calendar days UGX 250,000.0
5 UMEME conducts external connection, meter installation and electricity starts flowing

All payments made in cash at the utility, at the bank counter. Two separate payments are made – one for capital contribution and one for security deposit and the two receipts are then given at respective counters in the utility. Once all payments are made, the utility gives an account number and instructions are sent to connections department. Cost breakdown is as follows: One pole service 3 phase, the cost varies depending on the distance, security deposit, transformer structure; Distribution transformer; LV Cable cost; and labor cost of transformer structure. Utility conducts all external connection works and meter installation.
Agency: UMEME 		30 calendar days UGX 51,275,492.2
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