Is UMEME’s Yaka Smart Metering a Security Time Bomb?

Managing electricity distribution in Uganda like many other countries out there is a nightmare. Challenges abound when it comes to monitoring and getting payment for consumed power. The problem is so big that individual households and large industrial setups are all party to perpetuating it. As a way of putting some controls, the Smart Metering approach was undertaken by UMEME (Uganda’s largest Electricity distributor). Through the use of ICT, the company believes that it can achieve increased collection of power through a pre-payment system that has worked well in the Telecommunications sector as well as better monitoring of electricity meters at the client side. However, some dangers lurk and if not addressed they could spoil what was begun with genuine intentions. I explore these dangers in this article.