Power Fix Opens Path for Uganda’s Idle Cassava Plant to Buy More Crops

Money spent on fuel could soon go to cassava farmers instead. That is the shift Dei BioPharma founder and managing director Matthias Magoola expects after an electricity upgrade at the company’s largely idle processing plant in Namasagali, Uganda. According to Nile Post Uganda (direct), the facility in Kamuli District is approaching full-scale production after inadequate power kept its heavy machinery from operating properly.

The plant had barely run since President Yoweri Museveni commissioned it late last year. Magoola sought help in August from Energy and Mineral Development Minister Monica Musenero after the shortage stalled operations. She directed Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited, or UEDCL, to resolve the problem about two weeks before returning to inspect the site on October 2. During that visit, she said the main works were complete and commissioning—the checks needed to bring the upgraded supply into service—was under way. Some technical adjustments remained.

A separate transformer tackles the bottleneck

UEDCL installed a separate transformer at the Kamuli substation for the line serving Namasagali, according to Paul Sempiira, its manager for the North Eastern Region. The arrangement is designed to protect the plant from faults affecting other lines and provide steadier, better-quality electricity. Sempiira said the two transformers serving the area now have a combined capacity of about 7.5 megawatts, a level the utility considers sufficient for both the town and the factory.

For Magoola, the upgrade changes where the company can spend its money. He said funds previously used for fuel would be redirected towards cassava purchases, and he expects stronger production to lift prices paid for the crop. His forecast links the factory’s restart directly to the incomes of farmers supplying it, although sustained operation has yet to be established.

“The price of cassava is also going to go up because the money we have been spending on fuel will now be used to buy cassava,” Magoola said.

Local officials also see an opportunity for growers. Richard Mutuuya, the Namasagali LC3 chairperson, said dependable electricity should help raise the price of raw cassava tubers supplied to the plant from about Shs300 to Shs700 per kilogramme. That was an expected increase, not a reported change in market prices. He urged farmers to expand cassava production to serve the emerging market.

A supply link to medicines and vaccines

The plant’s importance extends beyond crop purchases. It makes pharmaceutical-grade starch—starch suitable for use in medicines—and industrial sugars for Dei BioPharma’s medicines and vaccines factory in Matugga, Wakiso District. Company officials say production of drugs and vaccines at Matugga cannot proceed without those materials. Restoring reliable electricity in Kamuli therefore addresses a supply obstacle for a second facility, rather than just restarting a standalone crop-processing operation.

Cassava project coordinator Michael Mugabira said the venture could help farming households in Busoga, Teso and Lango move from growing mainly for their own needs towards selling crops for cash. He also described cassava as an alternative to sugarcane farming and said participating households could see a substantial income increase within two years. Those benefits remain expectations tied to the project’s development.

The next steps are completing the remaining technical adjustments and moving from commissioning into sustained production. For farmers, the test will be whether the promised redirection of fuel spending translates into more cassava purchases and higher prices. For Dei BioPharma, it will be whether reliable power allows Kamuli to supply the inputs its Matugga factory needs.