KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s parliament has approved a government request to borrow $190 million from Stanbic Bank to compensate power distributor Umeme Limited for unrecovered investments after its concession expires, the energy minister said.
“Parliament has approved our request as @GovUganda (government) to borrow $190 million from Stanbic Bank for the buyout of Umeme,” Ruth Nankabirwa said in a post on social media platform X late on Thursday.
Umeme is listed on both the Ugandan and the neighbouring Kenyan stock exchanges, and has monopoly rights to distribute electricity in Uganda through the concession which started in 2005.
The company was notified that the licence, which is due to expire at the end of this month, would not be renewed.
According to the terms of the concession, however, the government must compensate Umeme for any capital investments in the power distribution network that the company has not recovered by the end of the concession period.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Rachna Uppal)
