The town is at the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Bwera is another settlement to the immediate east of the Mpondwe border crossing. The Mpondwe Town Council incorporates Bwera, and in this article "Mpondwe" refers to the combined "Mpondwe-Bwera" metropolitan area.[4]
Mpondwe is approximately 55.5 kilometres (34 mi), by road, south-west of Kasese, where the district headquarters are located.[5] This is about 131 kilometres (81 mi) southwest of Fort Portal, the nearest large city.[6] Bwera is located approximately 424 kilometres (263 mi), by road, west of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city.[7] The geographical coordinates of the town are 0° 02' 24.00"N, 29° 43' 30.00"E (Latitude:0.0400; Longitude:29.7250).[8] The town sits at an average elevation of 1,220 metres (4,000 ft) above mean sea level.[9]
In 2002, the national population census estimated the population of Mpondwe at 12,050. In 2010, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) estimated the population at 16,100. In 2011, UBOS estimated the mid-year population at 16,700.[11] The national census in August 2014 put the population at 51,131.[12]
In 2015, UBOS estimated the population of Mpondwe Municipality at 52,000. In 2020, the population agency estimated the mid-year population of the town at 58,600 people. Of these, 30,400 (51.9 percent) were females and 28,200 (48.1 percent) were males. UBOS calculated the annual population growth rate of Mpondwe to average 2.34 percent per year, between 2015 and 2020.[1]
In March 2018, The Independent (Uganda) reported that the government of Uganda, had secured a loan of US$14 million (USh50.4 billion), to facilitate cross-border trade between Uganda and DR Congo. The Ugandan government, through the Uganda Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and the Uganda Ministry of Works and Transport, in collaboration with other stakeholders plans to use the borrowed funds to construct a one-stop-border-post (OSBP) and a Border Export Zone (BEZ) at Mpondwe.[2] Construction of the OSBP and BEZ was officially commissioned on Thursday 17 April 2019, by president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.[13] As of June 2022, completion of the OSBP and BEZ was estimated at 92 percent.[14]
Points of interest
The following points of interest lie within the town limits or close to the edges of town:[8]
Crispus Kiyonga – Physician and politician. Current Ambassador to China and former Minister of Defence in the Cabinet of Uganda. He was born here and maintains a home in the area. He also served as the elected member of Parliament for this constituency.[17]