The Ministry of Energy has revealed that the current pre-paid electricity meters commonly known as Yaka meters will stop functioning by the 24th of November this year.
The Ministry of Energy has announced a planned phase-out of the current prepaid electric metering system locally known as Yaka.
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Friday that prepaid electricity users will have to migrate to the new Token Identification System, known as the TID Rollover by October 2024.
The new meters will mean a change from the existing Token Identifiers (TID). In South Africa, the operators announced that token Identifiers will run out in November 2024.
Nankabirwa said that all electricity consumers with Yaka will have to migrate to the new Token Identification System to be able to continue purchasing units for their power supply.
She said that the standard of metering is being recognized at the global level because, with it, a consumer can use it to switch electricity payments from one utility provider to another.
“We have set for ourselves a target to have all Uganda’s Electricity Consumer’s Yaka (prepaid) meters migrated onto the New Token Identification System by October 2024 to be able to continue purchasing Units for their Electricity Supply seamlessly,” the minister said.
“This change is happening on a global scale and will affect all consumers on the Prepayment Metering system,” she added.
The government recently mooted a plan to have electricity tokens by different operators other than the current Yaka system offered by Umeme Uganda Limited.
Uganda is undertaking several reforms in its power sector supported by the Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2022. The amendment, which seeks to end monopoly in the power sector, has already led to the pending exit of UMEME.
“All efforts are being made to support UEDCL to get ready to take over the operations of the Umeme network come 1/4/25. UEDCL has been given the financial and technical support required to seamlessly receive and operate the network without any consternation,” Nankabirwa explained.
“Specifically, for the UMEME exit, we set up a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) to supervise and manage the transition process,” she added.
The Energy Policy for Uganda 2023 aims to achieve the Electricity generation capacity target of 52,481MW by 2040 with a grid access rate of 80%. To achieve this ambition, the minister said the government will need to address the sub-sector holistically, not piecemeal.
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