Umeme Limited is the largest energy distributor in Uganda, distributing about 97 percent of all electricity used in the country.

[2] The registered offices of the company are located at Rwenzori House, 1 Lugogo Avenue, in the central business district of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda.

[5] The company expected to use the proceeds from the IPO, estimated at UGX:171 billion, to expand its power distribution network and payoff debt.

[26] Customers frequently face extended service outages,[27][28] which are occasionally followed by protests, riots, and assaults on Umeme employees.

[30] Days later, over 100 people were dispersed by riot police using tear gas and rubber bullets after marching on Umeme's offices in protest of recurring outages in Masaka town.

[32] In 2014, a Umeme manager in Mubende was beaten severely by an infuriated mob during power-related protests at the Kasambya trading centre.

The ensuing battle between rioters and security forces resulted in 15 arrests and one other injury, including a trader who was shot twice.

[34] In November 2018, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of Umeme's office in Gulu Town in north Uganda.

Many people involved in business were complaining that the frequent power outages raise their costs and prevent them from properly managing their ventures.

[39] In September 2016, Umeme estimated that it lost UGX:106 billion annually from nonpayment of bills, vandalism, and illegal connections.

[43][44] In May 2010, Umeme's communications director Charlotte Kemigyisha wrote a commentary in the Daily Monitor newspaper urging public support for President Yoweri Museveni's proposal to make electricity theft a capital offense.

[45] In December 2010, Umeme announced plans to invest US$32 million during 2011 in new substations, improvements in grid connectivity, and the introduction of pre-payment systems.

[47] Umeme spent US$440 million between 2013 and 2018 to overhaul equipment, buy technology, and add distribution points.

[51] In May 2018, in an interview with Reuters, Celestino Babungi, the CEO of Umeme, announced that the company planned to raise US$1.2 billion to revamp and expand the national distribution grid over the next seven years.

[52] In June 2019, the Daily Monitor newspaper reported that Umeme planned to borrow US$70 million from the International Finance Corporation to add to the US$255 million raised internally, in order to invest in network upgrades and expansion while reducing network losses along with increased collection targets during the 2019–2024 time frame.

Part of the loan will also support extension of power to industrial parks, upgrading Umeme's network, building the backbone on which more electricity connections will be supplied, accelerate prepayment metering and reduce energy losses.

Umeme was in the process of building another substation with two transformers to service the neighborhoods of Nansana, Kakiri and Wakiso, whose power needs are projected to grow between 15 and 20 percent in the next five years (2020–2025).

[65] In August 2020, Umeme announced that it was in the process of improving the electricity connections to large industrial consumers in the vicinity of Mukono Municipality.

[75] On 13 June 2019, during the reading of the national budget for the financial year 2019/2020, Uganda's Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija indicated that the government will extend Umeme's power distribution concession beyond 2025.