Uganda powers ahead by mobilising market forces

The prospect of private operators taking over power distribution and undertaking big ticket hydropower projects, as well as smaller cogeneration and power system schemes, has produced a positive response from most donors and investors, underlining the potency of Uganda's ambitious programmes to mobilise market forces to rebuild a ruined economy. Despite some concern over Nile water levels expressed by World Bank officials, the international momentum behind President Yoweri Museveni's government is such that hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of investment can be expected in the next few years as Ugandan policy-makers carry through their commitment to liberalise the power sector.