OPINION
The government of Uganda must increase the budget for energy sector from the proposed budget of shs1.301 billion to at least 2 trillion to enable the Ugandans to sector to diversify and expand the energy infrastructures.
The increment of the FY 2025/2026 budget for Energy sector is urgent because the country need to ensure that there is universal access to electricity and cleaner cooking by 2030, affordable energy supply , an energy hub for East African region, mitigation of energy emissions in line with Uganda’s conditional climate commitments, which imply a 20% reduction compared to baseline emissions in 2030 among others.
In addition to that the increment of the FY 2025/2026 for energy sector will also help the Ugandans to start up the small scale businesses, reduce on environmental degradation but also mitigate the drastic climate change the country is grappling with.
It is noted that over 90% of the Ugandans are still depending on the firewood and charcoal as the source of the energy for cooking and heating just because of the consistence failure by the government to increase the Budget of the energy sector every year. The FY 2025/2026 must be increased because the energy sector is the engine of all sectors that is to say Agriculture, industrialization, tourism, education, health among others.
Today 12.3percent of the Ugandan youth are not in the employment sector and cannot start the small scale businesses just because they cannot get access to various sources of energy available which are clean, affordable and reliable in their places. The government must prioritise the energy sector especially the hydroelectricity in the urban areas, Solar and biogas sources in the rural areas to enable the Ugandans to get access to power.
Uganda’s electricity generation capacity reached 2,005MW in 2023/2024 surpassing peak demand by 979.3MW, only 57% of the population has access to electricity. This means that Uganda still need to put a lot of attention on the energy sector to enable the population to have access to electricity but also reduce the levels of the deforestation and mitigation of the climate change.
Therefore, the government of Uganda must increase the energy budget for FY2025/2026 from the proposed budget of shs1.301 billion to at least 2 trillion to enable the the diversification and expansion of energy infrastructure but also the Ugandan population to have access to cheap, affordable and reliable.
Writer is: Paul Kato- Research Associate and Environmental Activist.
Katop.adyeeri@gmail.com
