What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

In December 1995, a group of Norwegians scouting for investment opportunities in Uganda’s energy sector were presented with a rough plan to build a hydropower dam at Karuma on the River Nile.

The project, and another upstream at Bujagali near Jinja, had been highlighted in an hydropower development masterplan developed by the British consultancy firm, Kennedy & Donkin Power Ltd.

The Milton Obote government had first hired the firm in 1983 to advise on refurbishment of the 150-megawatt Nalubaale dam commissioned 29 years earlier. That dam had achieved its full installed capacity in 1968, powering pockets of industrialisation particularly in Jinja. However, the political and economic instability of 1971-1986 left it half functional with output of only 60MW.

With a loan from the World Bank, the Museveni government that took power in 1986 restored and refurbished the dam and raised installed capacity to 180MW. Eventually, a new 200MW plant, Kiira, would be built adjacent and commissioned in 2003.

Kennedy & Donkin Power Ltd was re-engaged in 1988 and pointed to further potential sites on the River Nile at Karuma and Bujagali.

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