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28 October 2004 - Uganda's manufacturers are losing about seven days in production a month due to the power loadshedding beginning this month, Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) Chairman Abid Alam has said.
Local press quoted Alam on Thursday as saying that 25 per cent of the total production will be lost in the manufacturing sector due to the loadshedding.
He said the manufacturers will lose about three months a year of production but will find no solace in the fact that Uganda's current efforts to boost electricity production are inadequate, meaning loadshedding will continue for years.
Uganda is facing an acute shortage of electricity supply. The current demand during the peak hours is 347 MW, yet the supply is 200 MW from the two existing hydropower stations in Jinja. The Ugandan government will start to construct a 250 MW hydropower station at Bujagali in Jinja in 2005 and complete it in 2010.
Facing the acute shortage of electricity supply, the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company has started power rationing every other day from this month.
The industrial sector's contribution accounted for 19.4 percent of the gross domestic product for 2004/05 financial year.
"We are still suffering even with the appeal to Uganda Electricity Distribution Company not to loadshed industries. Loadshedding is a big problem, it's growing bigger," Alam said.
A recent World Bank and UMA report on investment in Uganda shows that of the 392 firms surveyed, most reported about 39 power outages last year with the estimated loss in production of 4-7 per cent.
This loss is estimated to go up as the power shedding steeped up this month, Alam said.
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