FAQ

What is the relevance of the various Agencies and Companies in the Electricity sub sector?

The unbundling of UEB has enabled other additional companies to invest at both the generation and distribution end of business.

With unbundling a vertically integrated company (i.e. UEB monopoly), all hidden inefficiencies that could not be readily identified earlier can now be easily identified in any of the subsequent companies and quickly dealt with.

A restructuring program for the electricity sector has seen the reduction of employees drop from 3000 employees to 1700 employees in all three companies to-date. Most of those retired (about 1300 people) were paid off and are now engaged in other useful economic activities.
The reduced sector costs have enabled expansion of the network and improved connections from 200,000 connections in 2000 to present 250,000 consumers connected.
The creation of the Electricity Regulator ERA as a result of unbundling UEB created the investor confidence required in the sector since the regulator is an objective and independent dedicated sector overseer. As a result the sector boosts of new and foreign investment.

In a nutshell the unbundling of the vertically integrated UEB and the creation of several companies led to improved service delivery, new investment and overall growth of the electricity sector.