By Mulengera Reporters
Mzee Sikander Lalan is ordinarily a very nice fun-loving old man majorly renowned for being the proprietor and owner of Roofings Ltd which is a leading player in the steel manufacturing industry. He has huge manufacturing plants in Namanve Industrial Park and a senior management office in Lubowa along Entebbe road where he started from.
His son Oliver Lalan is equally a vibrant business executive closely helping his father to run one of East Africa’s most successful steel business empires. Their market reach vastly goes as far as DRC, South Sudan plus Rwanda and in Uganda, they have a large market share of the steel market.
Besides being on top of the list of URA’s list of taxpayers, the Lalans have also lately distinguished themselves as one of the entities that spend large sums of money on electricity consumption making it top on the list of UMEME’s most valued customers. In just the last three years, their two steel companies (Roofings Ltd and Roofings Rolling Mills Ltd) have spent billions on payment of power bills to UMEME.
THE DETAILS
This investigative story gives a glimpse on how supportive the Lalans have been to the UMEME electricity business. We begin with Roofings Rolling Mills Ltd (their major company) whose expenditure is as follows in the last three years. In 2018, the company spent Shs2.4bn on electricity bills and Shs1.83bn in February, Shs2.75bn in March, Shs2.6bn in April, Shs2.3bn in May, Shs2.6bn in June and Shs2.19bn in July. The total for the first 7 months of the year stood at over Shs16.6bn.
As for 2017, their electricity spend was as follows: Shs1.87bn in January, Shs1.5bn in February, Shs1.966bn in March, Shs1.5bn in April, Shs2bn in May, Shs1.6bn in June, Shs1.9bn in July, Shs1.8bn in August, Shs1.5bn in September, Shs1.6bn in October, Shs1.6bn in November and Shs1.42bn in December. The grand total for 2017 was over Shs18.686bn.
In 2016, the company equally spent a fortune illustrated as follows: Shs1.5bn in January, Shs2.6bn in February, Shs1.2bn in March, Shs656m in April, Shs1.090bn in May, Shs1.3bn in June, Shs1.5bn in July, Shs1.4bn in August, Shs1.7bn in September, Shs1.7bn in October, Shs1.7bn in November and Shs1.4bn in December.
ROOFINGS LTD
This is another Lalan sister company which too extended significant support to the UMEME business in the same period of 3 years. In 2018, it paid Shs264m in January, Shs370m in February, Shs264m in March, Shs277m in April, Shs329m in May, Shs327m in June and Shs294m in July.
In 2017, Roofings Ltd paid Shs241m for the January power consumption, Shs291m for February, Shs280m for March, Shs284m for April, Shs312m for May, Shs293m for June, Shs253m for July, Shs306m for August, Shs287m for September, Shs281m for October, Shs304m for November and Shs291m for December.
In 2016, equally much was spent and it went as follows: Shs221m for January, Shs236m for February, Shs215m for March, Shs247m for April, Shs245m for May, Shs244m for June, Shs231m for July, Shs213m for August, Shs245m for September, Shs239m for October, Shs234m for November and Shs244m for December. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
