French Development Agency (AFD) will grant Uganda €37.1 million (about $44.2 million) to develop energy transmission network. The money will be steered into a project aimed at improving the existing 45 kV transmission line which links the towns of Masaka and Mbarara.

Once completed, this project should enable the country to boost energy export towards neighboring countries such as Rwanda and DR Congo. For the record, the country’s current 750 MW energy surplus cannot be piped due to the weakness of grid. Therefore, the government recently announced it would pump $1.2 billion over the next seven years to develop the network.

Let’s note that the tariff of 11 cent per kilowatt-hour applied in the country does not ease energy access to the population.

Gwladys Johnson Akinocho