Page 16 - EPSI Magazine Issue 8 final 2018.indd

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EPSI: If you are to look 10, 15 or even 20
years into the future, what does it look
like for UMEME?
For me, UMEME is at the centre stage of the
electricity sector. But our success is heavily de-
pendant on the success of the country. Electricity
use and GDP numbers are always in tandem. So,
for the next 3 to 4 years electricity generation will
double in the country. We see that there is a lot of
industrial demand currently growing at about 13%.
We see customers whether on grid or not on grid
they want electricity now. I see greenfield 6 million
households out there. I see 2 million near my foot-
print and about 4 million may be off grid.
What we see in the next ten years we should be
aligned with the government agenda, approaching
60% access by 2030. We should be having 3 to 4
million customers connected to the grid. We should
be diversifying our operations, we should also be in
the renewables possibly in the solar space, setting
the standard and pace on solar. We should see tech-
nology embedded in our operations to the extent
that there is minimal human interaction. For exam-
ple, in the grid network management and custom-
er self-service – potentially going into smart grids,
with self-serving clients on the grid.
We should also see an improvement in our in-
efficiencies. Losses should be below the 16% where
they are. And you know we should be seen as a go
to person because now I want to develop our con-
sulting wing where we now start providing services
to other utilities on electricity distribution.
You know what happens is that we want to
make us a Centre of Excellence. There have been
a number of successes that we have recorded and
want to keep recording. There was a team from Ni-
geria asking how do we achieve excellence. People
from Ghana came here, people from Liberia also
came here. We have had people from Cameroon.
People are coming to learn from us. So, in the next
few years we want really to build our centre of ex-
cellence at Nalubaale where we will train people. It
is not easy and people take it for granted but one
of the components is that we really need a lot of
training to make people better performers.
EPSI: Uganda is a dominantly young
population. What words of wisdom do
you have for all those youth aspiring to
be like you?
I think I have had an advantage. I think for us
our generation was one that was touching base
with those that transitioned from the original
civil service trained by the British; the structured
ways of working were part of life. For example,
things like time management were important,
results mattered; you had to work hard, money
would come; just deliver the results. We have had
an advantage where you are driven by that – a
purpose to work.
What we tend to see with this new gener-
ation in our current world, everything is taken
for granted. We see on Twitter like everything is
okay; I can’t work hard. I can’t sweat; concentra-
tion levels are low.
My advice to the youths is that they must
define a purpose for their lives. Results matter
– they must work hard for results. The future is
changing. There is a lot of information and tech-
nology impacting on the way we work. We may
be seeing jobs like accounts assistants, cashiers
disappearing. What will remain critically in the
future are your core competencies and skills, and
ability to adapt to the environment. The other
time I was meeting the UMEME engineers and
they were saying that there are new technologies
coming and that they need to be trained on how
to operate with those new technologies.
So, I recommend patience, deliver results, re-
main focussed on what you want to achieve and
there will be career growth for you.