Over 5000 shareholders of UMEME, Uganda’s electricity distributor, will receive Shs12 billion in dividends, according to its 2017 financial report to be released tomorrow.

According to the report, the company will pay a dividend of Shs7.6 per share, lower than Shs18.8 it paid in 2016.

The payment of the dividends await the approval of the annual general meeting to be held in May, and the proceeds expected to be paid in early July are subject to withholding tax, where applicable.

The money will go to shareholders in the books of the company at close of business on June 20, 2018.

The report says revenue earnings for the year increased by 8.7 percent to Shs1.5 trillion boosted by a 7.5 percent jump in units sold. Revenues from industrial customers increased by 13.2 percent.

Further, the report indicates gross profit increased by 8.3 percent during the year to Shs515.9b on account of improved distribution margins and continued reduction in energy losses which have come down to 16.9 percent, from the 17.7 percent recorded in first half of 2017.

The company attributes the reduction to, ‘heightened efforts to reduce commercial losses throughout our network through continuous metering installation audits, use of technology like smart metering for large consumers and community mobilization’.

But the company says delayed approval of some capital investments by the regulatory authority continues to negatively impact the gross margin.

UMEME reports that electricity sales grew by 7.5 percent during the period, compared to 4.4 percent in 2016.

“We registered a 8.0% growth in sales to industrial customers compared to 5.2% in 2016, underpinned by the improved performance of Uganda’s economy and improved external market conditions in the neighbouring countries,” says the report.

Demand by domestic customers grew by 6.9 percent compared to 2.6 percent in 2016, on account of improved supply reliability, reduction in energy losses and additional customer connections.

Customers increased by 18.3 percent during the year to over 1.1m, with an extra of over 170,000 grid connections compared to over 150,000 in 2016.

Customers on pre-paid metering (Yaka) increased to 75.3 percent of the total customer base compared to 65.0 percent at December 31, 2016.

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The World Bank yesterday announced the winners of its annual #Blog4Dev youth essay competition. The three winners are Tendo Namata, 26 years; Mary Helda Akongo, 24 years; and Douglas Dubois Semabala, 26 years.

The three were recognized at a gathering that brought together the finalists of past competitions since 2016. They will join the official Uganda country delegation to the 2018 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group taking place from April 13-22 in Washington DC, United States of America.

In addition to the all-expense paid trip to Washington DC, the three Ugandan winners will join winners from other African countries and engage in a number of activities, including meeting with senior government and World Bank officials to share their ideas and stories. Their essays are also posted on the World Bank Group blog site Nasikiliza, so they can share their ideas with young people in other parts of the world.

Now in its 3rd year, the #Blog4Dev series was initiated in 2016 to inspire youth to think creatively, innovatively and practically about solving some of the most pressing development challenges in Uganda. It aims to give youth a voice and harness their ideas to ensure they become part of the solutions.

Gender-based violence, the special theme of this year’s competition, poses a major development challenge in Uganda. Slightly more than half of girls and women in Uganda aged 15 to 29 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and 28 percent of women overall have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

“If Uganda takes strong action to end violence against women and girls now, US $2.4 billion will be saved every year by 2030. That is, there’s a big cost to inaction. The #Blog4Dev gives young people a chance to tell their stories so we can understand better the issues and take determined action,” said Christina Malmberg Calvo, World Bank Country Manager in Uganda.

Gender Based Violence (GBV) includes physical violence, rape and sexual assault, child and forced marriages, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, and the denial of resources and services. GBV knows no socio-economic or national boundaries and no country can afford it.

“Most interventions make the mistake of empowering select groups of girls more vulnerable to Sexual and Gender Based Violence but forget that if not duly helped, their communities will not be able to create a sustainable support structure to encourage their efforts towards both prevention and intervention. We realised that the villages possessed water committees that were very efficient when it came to cleaning and maintaining water resources, and could be used as platforms to sensitize communities against gender-based violence,” writes Tendo Namata in her winning blog. Embibo Gender-based Initiative, which Tendo runs in addition to her day-job, conducts outreach sensitizing school communities about gender-based violence in the Kamwenge area, in South Western Uganda.

Helda Mary Akongo, who works as an Operations and Programs Manager with Zimba Women, an organisation that uses technology to empower Ugandan women, further explained: “Encouraging victims to speak up, creating awareness, providing support for victims and educating them and the public about online and offline Gender-Based Violence is what it will take to end this vice. Technology can be used as an essential tool for combating this depravity, and it is precisely what I am setting out to do.”

In his blog, Douglas Dubois Sebamala makes a strong case for use of performance and creative arts to bring attention to gender-based violence, and help victims heal faster from their trauma. “Allowing creatives to share others’ stories through communal theatre pieces, anthologies, song or dance would have venting therapeutic resonance that can send information directly and return effective results faster than police threats of arrest,“saidSebamala, an actor on NTV’s Second Chance series who also works as a Public Relations Officers and Marketing Manager for Silent Voices Uganda.

The 2018 contest was open to Ugandan youth aged between 18 and 28 years and attracted more than 200 applicants. To participate, contestants submitted a 500-word essay on what it will take to end gender-based violence in Uganda. Essays were judged by the winners of the previous competition who included Stephen Katende and Fionah Komusana, finalists in 2016; and Mercy Melody Kayodi and Joseph Lule who took the top honours in 2017. A 5-member panel of judges comprising of World Bank staff interviewed the top five contestants and selected the final three.

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Members of the dfcu Women in Business programme have marked over a decade since its launch in Uganda during the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Kampala.

To mark this momentous day and ahead of the 2018 CHOGM that will be held in London in April, the British High Commissioner Peter West CMG hosted a reception at his residence to celebrate the achievements registered, using the opportunity to also recognise five exceptional women who are part of the dfcu Women in Business programme.

“I welcome this opportunity to congratulate and recognise talented Ugandan Women in Business. The initiative for celebrating women in business was launched during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda in 2007 by dfcu Bank.

Next month the UK will host CHOGM in London under the theme ‘Towards  a  Common  Future,” High Commissioner West said, adding that trade  and  gender  equality  are  among  the  priorities  that  the Commonwealth Heads of State will discuss.

The Women in Business programme, which was started by dfcu Bank and enjoys a mentorship partnership from the Cherie Blair Foundation, founded by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie, now boasts of over 35,000 members.

Of these 23,000 have been trained in running a business and financial management, with a key focus on increasing the women’s access to financial services and credit facilities.

Although women make over 50% of Uganda’s population, a huge percentage of this number do not have adequate access to finance but the Women in Business programme is addressing this inequality.

This lack of access is attributed to low financial literacy, such as, keeping adequate profit and loss accounts, writing business plans and articulating projections -all are key skills in accessing bank credit.

Of the over 35,000-member pool, 4,000 are, thanks to the programme now credit-ready, and have received business loans from dfcu Bank to boost their businesses.

Meanwhile, earlier in 2012, the Women in Business program constituted a five all-female Women in Business Advisory Council, which has a wide scope of expertise to support the bank in gender focused strategy formulation as well as build the capacity and develop the business skills for the women to enable them to continuously make informed business decisions as a primary goal.

According to Rosemary Mutyabule, a member of the dfcu Bank Women in Business Advisory Council, dfcu understands the difficulty women face with limited working capital, lack of collateral to secure loans, limited market information, networks and so much more.

“Financial literacy, which is a core element of the programme, plays a major role in ensuring that women who make up a higher percentage of the population have the requisite knowledge, skills and confidence to make informed choices as far as financial management is concerned and more importantly take advantage of the financial services available.

“When women are more financially literate, they are more productive and are able to make a significant contribution to the economy,” she adds.

A further milestone that was achieved since the Women in Business campaign was launched in 2007, was the opening of the Women in Business Advisory Center in 2015.

This is a one-stop-shop for critical business services like financial and business-to-business advisory services.

The dfcu Women in Business program has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Uganda Law Society, Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as Makerere University School of Business to further train their members on crucial business matters of law of contracts, accounting best practices and best business management practices.

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