The Cabinet of the Republic of Uganda sat on Monday September 10, 2018 at State House Entebbe under the Chairmanship of H.E the President and passed a set of resolutions among which included the approval of borrowing up to a tune of over $100m for CCTV Cameras across the country, the Minister of ICT Frank Tumwebaze disclosed in a press brief this morning.

The government has approved the proposal to borrow up to US$104,022,277 from Standard Chartered Bank to finance the National CCTV Network Expansion Project. This comes after an increase in crime in the city which the president believes will be greatly solved once the CCTV cameras are put in place.

While addressing journalists this morning at the Uganda Media Center in the country’s capital Kampala, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of ICT & National Guidance who also doubles as the Spokesperson of the Government of Uganda noted that; “ The Cabinet that met with the President resolved that the proposal to borrow US$ 104,022,277 from Standard Chartered Bank to finance the National CCTV Network Expansion Project has been approved”

The said money that is slated to be borrowed will be used to among others; Design and build the main Command and Control Centre, Mobile Command and Control Centres, and Regional Command and Control centres.

It shall also be used for Video surveillance through the installation of CCTV Cameras across the country, Installation of integrated communication platforms, Integrated case management systems (face recognition software, DNA, among other systems), Development of data centre with disaster recovery sites, Installation of required network infrastructure, Training of staff in all the relevant system and Operation and maintenance of the system.

Umeme Limited has today announced a Ushs12.7 dividend pay-out per ordinary share to all its shareholders for the six months ended 30 June 2018. A top official said the total interim dividend pay-out of Ushs20.6 billion was based on the stellar performance of the company over the period of January to June 2018.

The dividend subject to deduction of withholding tax, where applicable, will be paid on or about 11 January 2019 to shareholders in the books of the company at the close of business on 20 December 2018.

Commenting on the results, Umeme Managing Director, Mr. Selestino Babungi said the sector was on a steady growth after the demand by industrial consumers grew by 8.6%, up from the 7.5% registered in the same period the previous year.

“In simple terms, the sector is growing. Maximum demand grew just slightly under 600MW. The main drivers are the large industrial customers who are registering high annual growth rates of up to 13%,” Babungi explained.

He noted that the industrial demand for electricity was in line the GDP growth, which is projected to grow at 6% in the 2018/2019 financial, up from 3.9% in 2017, adding that GDP growth goes hand-in-hand with electricity demand.

Babungi pointed out that the setting up of National Cement Company and the new Hima Cement plant, the two new cement plants in Tororo and the expansion of Tororo Cement Industries, all of which were fully commissioned, boosted the industrial sales.

“Existing industrial consumers like Coca-Cola and Roofings have also boosted their production. The Buy Uganda, Build Uganda drive is helping a lot. The South Sudan and DR Congo markets have also reopened. Commercial use of electricity is fundamental. Industrial use is essential in up taking the increasing generation capacity,” he explained.

The giant utility also registered progress in the energy loss reduction targets in the six months of 2018 to 16.7% compared to 17.5% for the same period in 2017.
“We focused the half-year loss-reduction efforts on commercial losses and are in dialogue with the Electricity Regulatory Authority on specific approvals required for technical loss reduction investments,” Babungi said.

He disclosed that for these efforts, delegations from Nigeria and Mozambique were expected to visit the utility to benchmark on how they are doing this when the regional utilities are struggling to tame their losses figures.

The company has also maintained an average collection rate of 99.2% over the last three years, while the revenue collection rate for the period under review stood at 102.8%, attributed to the rollout of prepaid metering, recoveries of past unpaid bills, timely payment by industrial customers, government agencies and provision of payment systems available 24 hours per day.

During the first half of 2018, the company added up to 82,373 customers to the grid, increasing our total customers to a record 1,207,664. The firm targets to add a total of 200,000 new customers to the grid by end of 2018. Customers on prepaid metering increased to 76.3% of the customer base. Prepaid revenue from these customers represents 24% of the total revenue.

The Full report from of Review of the Results for the Six Months Ended 30 June 2018 can be viewed or downloaded here

Itel Mobile is on the road of cementing its’ brand among the household players across the continent in the smartphone arena. Their new entrant device itel P32 will help continue to earn them more customers and good reputation thus pursue its ascension as a  serious player, for starters this phone comes in with unrivalled price tag of 330.000UGX and a huge battery of 4000mAh which can take you 3 days on one charge. We have had the first impression and more in-depth review of the itel P32 already. This article covers a few features that make the phone stands out from the others.  

Flamboyant Slim design.

At just 8.8mm thickness, the sleek slim design of P32 repudiates its extraordinary price and makes it look too good for it. Don’t let the price tag riddle you, the slender beauty from itel comes with a 5.5 inch 18:9 full-screen display with some decent bezels and good image quality to play with. It comes in four different colours of champagne Gold, Rose Gold, Black and Cobalt Blue.

Looking for something to supplement your calm lifestyle and doesn’t want to break the bank for it ?, the P32 is a good option with the multi-functional fingerprint sensor it kinda blends in without trying too much.

New Android Go makes the phone runs faster

Android Go edition is one of the most exciting features of itel P32 so far. Imagine with RAM of 1GB and Onboard storage of 8GB the device actually performs significantly faster than most average budget smartphones thanks to the optimised performance of Android Go.

The new OS has reimagined apps designed to use less power and storage yet, still keeping most features of their full counterparts. We are really blessed to witness such an amazing technology being implemented on an entry-level phone like P32 let alone the fact it’s very much in the affordable smartphone window.  

A battery that keeps going beyond normal

The phone parades a humongous 4000mAh battery capacity which undoubtedly outstrips the higher end phones in terms of battery life and keeps you busy watching the videos or glued to your games.

My recent observation and experiences with the phone entails this little device as a monster and an utter power saving one , the phone took me a full 3 days on one charge fulfilling all my annoying social media addictions, a bunch of chat apps opened and the games all running and still took me the whole nine yards. This can be your best travel companion in case you’re going for a long journey and need to satisfy your online addiction and stay afloat with the online world.

Two back cameras are better than one

In the past recent years, we have witnessed more and more flagship phones include two rear cameras in their devices ultimately making it a trend of the moment. Itel P32 tassels the big boys with such a spec as well, the two back cameras also come with a dual soft LED light which allows you to take pictures in low light conditions making it a bonus for the excellent photo quality you’re going to get.

The front camera of P32 features a 5MP sensor and 85-degree wide angle that allows you to take decent selfies that can fetch for you some notable likes on your facebook photos.

Unbeatable price tag

The expansive battery life of P32 will appeal to many but this device stands out from other big battey players in the market. For just 330,000UGx it offers for you what a lot more than what other phones provide at a much higher price. The unmatched performance with Android Go edition and fly sleek style is just an addition to this slender phone.