Umeme Ltd. (“Umeme”, “the Company”) is a regulated electricity distribution company in Uganda, supplying over 800,000 customers mainly located in the semi-urban corridor linking Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja. In March 2005, Umeme was awarded a 20 year concession to manage and operate the assets of Uganda Electricity Distribution Company (UEDCL). The award of the concession was part of Uganda’s broader privatization of its power sector, which also involved the unbundling of transmission, distribution and generation, and the awarding of concessions for the operation of its existing generation assets. Uganda’s power sector privatization was fully supported by the World Bank Group.

In 2009, IFC committed $25 m in debt financing to support Umeme’s operations. In November 2012, IFC participated in an Initial Public Offering to support Umeme’s rehabilitation and development of its network through additional connections, implementation of a new customer billing system, rolling out a customer call center and work management centers, and expansion of its environmental, health and safety management capacity; IFC also provided a $70m in debt financing to support 2013-2018 Umeme’s capital expenditure program mainly involving the upgrade and expansion of medium voltage transmission lines and substations and through the introduction of pre-paid meters across its customer base. IFC is now proposing to increase its commitment to finance this program by an additional debt financing of $25m (the “Project”).