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The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 1998–2008

Uganda's NWSC went from a recommended shutdown to Africa's model water utility

Losing Sh 348 million a month and told to close in 1999, NWSC used autonomy and performance contracts to become a recognized turnaround.

National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)

The solution

In the late 1990s the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Uganda's urban water utility, was losing Sh 348 million a month, with performance indicators below African utility standards. After five years of intensive investment failed to fix it, the World Bank recommended in 1999 that NWSC close down for good.

Instead of closing, NWSC changed how it was run. Management gained autonomy under successive performance contracts with the government, managers were held to measurable service and revenue targets, and a sustained drive on billing, collection and capacity building followed — reforms the World Bank later credited with improving performance and accountability.

The result is one of Africa's most widely recognized utility turnaround stories. The World Bank's water practice now cites NWSC as the standard example of improving performance, increasing accountability and focusing on capacity building, supported at the highest political levels.

Why it worked

  • Performance contracts made the turnaround measurable and hard to reverse
  • Operational autonomy let managers act on problems instead of waiting for approval
  • Relentless focus on billing and collection closed the cash gap
  • Sustained political backing kept the reform alive through the hard years
What it achievedGive managers targets, then get out of the wayclever

What can be applied

A utility failing for years is failing on governance, not hardware: performance contracts, management autonomy and political backing turn it around faster than new pipes alone.

Aftermath

NWSC became the World Bank's standard example of a successful utility turnaround, cited across its water-sector materials as proof that a state utility can be transformed without privatization. The case study that began with a recommendation to close now serves as a reference for utility reform.

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