The State Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Peter Lokeris has assured the country that any innovative idea whose aim is to develop the Bigas sub-sector will be funded and supported by the government.
Minister Lokeris made this promise while speaking during the ABC annual Knowledge Exchange Event at Speke Resort Munyonyo on Tuesday where he affirmed that Uganda’s government will continuously support the biogas market development agenda.
He noted that in order to develop the Biomass sub-sector, a conducive enabling environment is necessary, particularly in promoting and regulating the sustainable exploitation of the resource. He further noted that the Government of Uganda has made a number of international and regional commitments, putting in place National Policies, strategies, standards and plans that support the sustainable use of biogas development at household, institutional and industrial levels.
“The Government of Uganda remains committed to supporting innovative ideas that will help the development of the Biogas sub-sector. These will be aimed to get workable solutions to support communities to adopt biogas as a clean energy option while providing an organic fertilizer to support the country’s sustainable Agro-industrialization agenda,” said the Minister.
He added that the Government has further set targets of reducing the high dependence on woody biomass for cooking. Any innovative idea to help the communities to reduce the high dependence on biomass for cooking will be welcomed and supported.
According to the Minister, projects like ABC, therefore, play an important role in driving the Government’s clean cooking agenda, particularly at the household level.
“In this regard therefore, the Government commends the ABC partners on this critical intervention and is looking forward to taking stock of the over 8,000 small-scale biodigester systems expected to be disseminated in Uganda, and more importantly, the impact these will have on the communities,” he noted.
He added that the future looks even more promising for Uganda as the country is blessed with abundant renewable energy sources. Since the estimated energy potential provides a good promise of a good investment climate.
“In our new policy outlook, we aspire to generate over 50,000MW of electricity all supplied from renewable energy sources. Through the different Government programs, we will continue working with other partners to develop flexible financing and technology deployment options to support the market access affordable and patient financing and increase technology deployment or adaption. Therefore allow me to reiterate that Biomass is still a major part of our countries’ energy mix, and therefore we must have concerted for its sustainable utilization.”
However, the Minister warned that as the energy transition is taking root, with technologies such as biogas playing a role, some products may appear on the market that needs to be checked for their ability to offer the right service. If not checked, sub-standard products may spoil efforts to support the transition agenda. “The Ministry will therefore work with all relevant bodies to continue developing and enforcing standards so as to curb quality issues on the Uganda market.”
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