 Thank you very much. I would like to recognize and salute the senior comrade and Anirida in this country, my brother and senior Honorebo, Honorebo Minister for State for Energy Mr. Okusai. You are very welcome. In the recent couple of years there has been a general realization that the earth is no longer what it was 20 years ago and energy resources largely are finite. If we are to develop this country and develop this continent we must have a consensus that forms of energy that are not renewable are not sustainable and today's interaction is an affirmation of this thinking that we can still achieve development in our various countries. The global north thinks that renewable energy is the way to go and they have taken a number of strides to develop this thinking and to share the ideas with the rest of the world. The global south Uganda inclusive thinks that whereas we are abundantly blessed with a variety of energy sources it is important to exploit those energy resources that are renewable and our partners the international energy agency has come forward to support this country and other countries in Africa probably Sub-Saharan Africa to put this agenda at the forefront of the season making. Now this is best achieved when it is tackled from policy level. So this is why we are here generally and we shall be getting different ideas about the strides that have been taken to achieve integration of renewable energy for sustainability purposes. So I ask you to be at ease and we start today. I welcome, I welcome the host of this function the permanent secretary minister of energy and mineral development. We are you are free to speak from there I can bring your microphone or you can walk over to the podium whichever you prefer. Honourable ministers, Honourable Okasai Opulot, Minister of State Energy, Honourable Peter Rokeris, the Minister of State for Minros, the Deputy Exeggitive Director of the International Energy Agency, our you are experiencing the energy program to Uganda. The Honourable members of parliament who could be present, the chair persons of the boards of the sector agencies present, the MDs representatives from our main ministries present also want to introduce the presence of the staff led by the several commissioners from Minister of Energy and Mineral Development present, esteemed colleagues from the International Energy Agency. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Grace Tosime, I'm here to represent engineer Irene Patele, who has asked me to convey her apology. This function is very critical and important to her but she's out of the country. She's been in Dodoma. There was a very urgent activity she had to participate in that is the signing of the bilateral agreement. We do have a proposed project that is going on for natural gas pipeline. So there were a number of judgments they needed to handle. She's unable to be here but be assured that whatever we discuss here I would able give her feedback. Members, I want to welcome you all to this important function and you could see with the presence of two ministers and ministers how important this function is to us. We do the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development is mandated to ensure reliable, adequate and sustainable exploitation, management and utilization of energy and mineral resources in Uganda. As you are aware, the country is now implementing the third national development plan that is from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025, which recognizes the available bit of sustainable that is reliable and clean energy services that it is critical for economic growth, poverty reduction as well as the social and cultural transformation over society. And hence the objectives of NDP cannot be realized without sustainable energy supply. The NDP 3 sets several targets related to energy supply and realization and these include the following among others. One, to increase proportion of the population with access to electricity from 24% in financial year 2018-2019 to 60% in 2025. Two, increase the share of the clean energy used for cooking from 15% in financial year 2018-2019 to 50% in 2025. Thirdly, increase energy generation. Next, achieve first oil production by 2025 through the development of the oil refiner and oil importation pipeline. And lastly, commercialization and very addition to the vast mineral resources focusing on the five prioritized minerals namely iron ore, phosphate, copper, cobalt and aluminum. To realize the above objectives, it's important for the ministry to develop the necessary long-term planning tools and stages which will guide the ministry and the sector on the sustainable energy development. The long-term energy planning will enable the ministry to develop policies, national targets and investment strategies that are derived from the quantitative analysis of the sectors, scenarios especially towards transition to a low carbon economy added by modeling of energy systems. Lack of a comprehensive energy plan that encompasses all energy sources, demand, supply and roadmap to a sustainable future is a challenge to attain the stated goals. We have therefore developed a three-step strategy to achieve this program namely the in-depth review report which we are looking at today to energy transition plan and lastly integrated energy resource master plan. The development of these plans will enable prioritization, the risking investments, promoting innovative business models in the sector and ensuring that the investments are optimized since these investments will utilize the necessary planning tools including models to undertake analysis, projections and real-time decision support. This will then result into accelerated and sustainable energy access while at the same time providing reasonable return to investment to our partners. With the support of an incorporation with the International Energy Agency, we have undertaken an in-depth review of the energy sector in Uganda. This situation analysis is the first task of this broad task of long-term planning. Therefore, the in-depth review of this energy is informing the environment of the energy transition plan and will further inform the environment of the integrated resource plan. Therefore, the in-depth review report will support Uganda as it works to chart its sustainable energy development path forward, achieve its goals to eradicate poverty, develop its energy resources, promote sustainable clean and nuclear energy, and bring prosperity to all Ugandans. I therefore take this opportunity to thank the IEA for their partnership, cooperation and commitment plus professionalism they have put in this task which has enabled us to produce the first in-depth review which we believe is the first of its kind probably south of Sahara and want to believe is the first of its kind. I also thank the Norwegian Embassy for the long cooperation and support to ensure that this important activity takes place by financial funding, the IEA to undertake the IDR and also sponsoring this very event. I wish to thank the taken core teams on both sides, the IEA team led by Madam Rebecca Ganghen and Madam Serene Erabed. Also want to recognize the effort put in by our team led by Dr. Wanaga who is the overall task team leader for this project. The task force members are also appreciated and our key partners and stakeholders who have provided the much needed for this task. I really thank you for your patience, for your attention and this is all said for God and my country. I thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are we still awake or somebody is already sleeping? Are we still awake? Important ideas being discussed. I would like to recognize and salute our own ambassador and Christine from the royal blessed country of Norway. Am I right? You can wave to your people. We salute you because you know we love this country and we love what you are doing to help us to grow as a country and as a people. I want to welcome my brother Dr. Gerard Wanaga to give us an overview of a lot of work that has taken place behind the scenes to get us up to this moment. And then thereafter I will ask another person to add a bit of flavoring to the discussion before we can have a panel discussion. Doctor, you are welcome. I salute all of you who have come in and have not recognized you, especially members of the press, traditional media and the new media. You wave at us and we salute you all. You are welcome. Thank you very much. Honorable Ministers, you expressed the ambassador, deputy executive director of the IEA. Honorable members, MDs, CEOs, senior management of the ministry, colleagues, task team members, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gerard Wanaga and you will take it that I have been the task team leader for this assignment. And I would pick it from where the PS ended it and where the minister, the last time we were here, the minister said he wanted results. So I have been playing hide and seek from the Honorable Ministers on this task. So Honorable Kasai, I imagine your question is a bit answered. Thank you very much. Now, Honorable Ministers, we have been here a number of times. A number of times. What is the mission we are on? We reviewed every documentation about the sector, energy, oil and minerals. And our ministry is blessed to have these three unintegrated in two one. Now, when you take a closer review of the consultancy reports, peer reviews, commentaries, there was one underlining statement that we need to improve on the planning and the coordination of these sectors. And so the decision was made that we have got to embark on this big assignment on how to improve the planning and coordination. In one report, actually a hush one, which was very hush, said the sector lacks intra and coordination and planning. So you will note that there has been a review of some of the laws and this function of planning has properly been defined and vested in the ministry of energy and mineral development. So the broad purpose of this task we are on is really to improve that particular function of government and stakeholders as my peers have said. Now, you are looking at the three sectors. When we agreed as the peers have said, we set out a three step approach and one was to do an in-depth review of these three segments. In-depth review, you don't plan from space, you must understand the starting point and where the set score is to analyze and make some particular recommendations. Now, that in-depth review, which as the peers said, is actually the first one south of Sahara. So it's a fact, Srin. Yes, and for those who have been reading most of the energy references, we have this global energy outlook, which is like a masterpiece from the IEA that all of us read and you will not find a report that you are going to launch today anywhere south of Sahara apart from Uganda. Uganda will be the first one and maybe the reason why the deputy had to be here to see it herself. Now, we set up, we agreed on the modus operandi. The first part was of course, tough negotiations, with whom do you undertake the national planning function? I think that was the biggest question and we wish to thank our ministers who had very serious discussions on this matter together with the Norwegian Embassy and arrived at the conclusion on the approach we should take, because that was tough. It was too big for some of us taking officials, but the ministers handled that and agreed that we could take the format of partnering with the IEA as supported by the Royal Norwegian Government. So I wish to request the members that we club for that discussion because the negotiations were not easy. Yes, the second one we agreed that to undertake this assignment, it will be a partnership. We will not have a team coming here and do some work and it's gone. No, we will do it as all the assignments I have engaged myself in, we will do it with the Ugandan team as well as the IEA team. So the IEA put up their team or their teams because there is a team within the IEA, a team of professionals, but then they also have a team of reviewers from various countries. I think they were, the last time we were here, PSU remember we had the delegation of about 20 people, the first mission from the IEA. So these are reviewers who review every piece of work that all of us cherish when it finally comes out of the IEA. So they are also here. Then we got the Ugandan team. So I don't want to pretend and take any credit for anything. So we had the Ugandan team, the task force. So I request the Ugandan team because it was marked vast. Everyone on the Ugandan team, those who have arrived, you stand up and see your results. Yes, Mr. Kitoy. We have a team of 39. As you can see we are dealing with Mr. Kitoy, Dr. Bryan, did you raise your hand? Yes. So you see we have middle managers, senior managers. We made it sure that everybody is involved now. We are dealing with energy and when we talk about energy, as you see in the report it is energy, it is renewable, it is efficiency, it is electricity. Cecilia, you gave us engineer Edward Subuga. Yes. So that's why I did not ask Cecilia to put up her hand because she nominated a very able person to represent her. So we have 39. Then we have a team from Minroz. Now you are wondering why we have two ministers. This report is covering energy, petroleum and Minroz. Honourable Keris has been at the ministry longer than most of us and the Honourable Minister wishes to inform you that we have the analysed petroleum and Minroz. Where is the petroleum team which is here? I saw Pao, Yes, Tony Severe, Ochan. We have Minroz. Who is from Minroz? The doctor there plus a group of team. These people have been moving around in all the industries, all the industries, all the factories to use, to assess, to determine their technologies and to project their future behaviours. I wish to thank you all for that work. So this is the first step in the long run to the long term planning for the sector. The in-depth review international energy agency calls it the energy policy review. And let me tell you we had issues with that naming because you see for us we are much broad. But the IEA, that's the point we disagreed to agree that we let them call it but for us the scope is covering the content that we wanted to cover. So we agreed that when the report comes out they can always write energy policy review and the content will be covering what we wanted to cover. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree but then move on. But we are glad that that took place. This in-depth review has had several missions and the team on the IEA led by Selene Elabeth and Madame Rebecca Gargan. So Madame Baswan you return please pass our thank you to Rebecca, Madame Rebecca and I'm sure when you are a senior please thank Selene when she is here. Selene is like a minister of foreign affairs for the IEA. The pathfinder struggling with all the cracks things. This team has brought here three missions, three or four but Selene has been here several times because the issues were more intense. So we had the first mission I think November December we had the second mission, the other mission in March and then we had the presentation of the draft and the validation in June. So in June those who are here Honorokasai has been at the beginning and at the end of this we had the team of about 100 people here pre-reviewing this report. So from all the segments that are important for this sectors. This IEA report is the input to the energy transition plan which broadly defines the pathway for the country for the next future up to net zero time which we are looking at 2065 and sometimes people think net zero means no emissions, no. Please just google where you are, go to the IEA website get the definition of net zero then you know that there will be emissions at that time. Now that is what is being covered under the energy transition plan which fortunately we are also doing in partnership with the IEA so the idea as well as the energy transition plan is being undertaken in partnership with the international energy agency and we have developed our capacity in the ministry and in the sector we took a couple of people for training for monitoring those in geospatial planning we sent a team to Italy see what? Yes, whatever the name is. Yes, because our understanding was we are not going to undertake work unless I believe we had the sufficient capacity to maintain that work and take it forward and that will be the last time we will be seeing the professionals from the other side apart from peer reviewing and consultations we made that condition to the IEA and the IEA believed in the same principles of building national capacities so we have a team even my colleague Okitoi believes in this is the man by the way those who have read the national development plan this I don't know the old man or senior man was part of the core team was part of the team that developed the national development plan so building national capacity is critical for us and we thank IEA for having supported us along those lines now this was as I said this was not possible unless we had the support of the Norwegian government please madam ambassador you excellency when you return please send a message to your predecessor because she said ask for dinas for lunches the reason was we had disagreements in negotiations and she was always there to break them and together with our minister they managed to break us and bring us together and that's how we progressed please pass our sincere thanks to her after we finish these two we are heading straight into the integrated resource plan now this task is big is not big but its nature does not meet the tenants of the IEA you need a different party so even that we have concluded we didn't want to start and stop halfway even that we have concluded and that is being supported by the african development bank where is the african development bank yes the country and the task team leader is madame Stella Madango and that has come out of very intense discussions between the country director of african development bank with our PS and the president of the african development bank so they have agreed to finance that integrated resource plan at least to the core of the consultancy which is quite expensive and then the government of Uganda will support the other components of the assignment so in I think for the CEO's room I was discussing and they were saying where are you people what are you doing, where are you heading you realize that the minister at least has got clear direction of where you are heading in the beginning of that journey when we are in Paris at the IEA Honore Wakasai questioned even the design of the reports the strategies and he said he wanted to look forward to the finalization of this assignment so madame Warlik just the Honore Wakasai is the Honore Minister next to you is our minister in charge of energy the next one is the minister responsible for minerals for the oil the critical minerals which are necessary for the transition is the guy we are happy to have very strong ministers that are grounded into the subject matter sometimes you want to wear the politicians or technical officers but they are senior and experienced so they give us very good guidance this is the direction ladies and gentlemen we are taking in terms of enhancing the integrated resource planning for energy for oil for minerals and this is the first step that will be launched today with that I hope I put the subject into context for everybody to appreciate for those who have not been with us in the last one one year or so thank you very much thank you it is evident that between access to renewable energy and development there is also a relationship I would say direct relationship between energy per capita and GDP there is also a relationship between access and affordability affordability is one of the major major challenges that many countries in Africa face because whereas they have energy sources to a large extent most of the populations are not able to gain from the energies that the country produces because of cost developing a way in which we get the balance just right is important to take this country forward and personally I identify the cause of today's session I invite my sister Serene to come and unveil her package to all of us thank you good morning colleagues it's always a bit challenging to take the floor after Gerald now that we have been interacting for a few times over the recent months my name is Serene El Abed program officer at the International Energy Agency I'm very pleased and honoured by your presence all of you here today you've been so much engaged many of you have taken part in the development of this project and today it's just amazing to see also this commitment ongoing to see the results of our joint effort in developing this report it's also of course my great honor to have such an esteemed guest here with Honorable Minister Okasi that we had the opportunity to discuss and he challenged us also in the past on the results of the project also with Honorable Lokheris her Excellency Ambassador of Norway and of course our Deputy Executive Director Mary Vorlich who is here today for the first time in Uganda and indeed she insisted to come to attend this launch even though she had really long trip to launch other key reports in different regions in the world so thanks again today I will be giving a short presentation I hope it will not be boring but try to capture really the main takeaways from our reports this report of course as you now understand has been developed jointly with the Ministry of Energy and with many of you of course and we hope this way it is really comprehensive and it captures different perspectives on the whole energy sector in Uganda so Uganda now is in a turning point in terms of its development agenda and our analysis and findings and this report aim to describe the current energy context its opportunities but also to provide a number of recommendations based on the long experience of the IEA working also and countries around the world and my colleague Gerald just mentioned that our work also benefited from inputs from representatives from other countries who joined the mission to give insights also and to take part in the discussion the findings and assessments as well as the recommendations have been discussed with the Ministry several times and we see that already given that the Ministry is working in this very commendable project of developing the energy transition plan and the integrated energy resource master plan some of the recommendations that we provided a few months ago are already being implemented so next slide while we aim here with this first slide to give a bit of the context and overview quick overview of the energy context so as we said the report provides a comprehensive overview of Uganda and its sector and we looked at 10 different focus areas when developing this report that were identified and defined jointly with the Ministry of course to align with the country's priorities these go from the power sector renewable energy access to electricity, cooking oil and gas, critical minerals efficiency, investment environment and climate Uganda is a country that has every dynamic, young and increasingly urban population it has also considerable amount of natural resources including fertile soils petroleum deposits and a reservist of iron ore, copper cobalt all of which are really key to ensure a energy development in the country its economy is set to grow fast and so is its demand for energy Uganda has also the technical expertise and the government institutions necessary to advance its energy policy goals key policy reforms such as also the recently updated policy Uganda policy energy policy demonstrate the country commitment to achieve its ambitious objectives in terms of energy and the more broadly development and also Uganda is a leader original reader in terms of energy statistics and important efforts and data and statistics over the last years has led to improved coverage, quality and timeliness of energy balances and related data however despite all these great achievements there are a few challenges that needs to be urgently addressed to foster socio-economic development these include low electrification rates and the low access rates to clean cooking solutions energy infrastructure that could be further enhanced and high reliance of the power sector on hydropower so having provided this very high level overview of Uganda's energy sector and the few challenges it faces we can now go into more of the details of each section we consider it and starting with the power sector including the renewable energy used for power generation so first and foremost the government of Uganda is really to be commanded for its efforts and substantially increasing its generating capacity as we see from this graph between 2002 and 2023 the increase was fourfold it went from 320 megawatts in 2022 to over 1346 megawatts at the beginning of 2023 and today Uganda has a significant surplus related to its peak demand of about 800 megawatts the Karuma Hydroelectric Power Plant coming fully online in 2023 will add the further 600 megawatts which will give a total of almost 2000 megawatts the government is also to be commanded for promoting renewable energy and power generation currently almost all power in Uganda is generated from renewables with over 80% coming from hydropower and the remaining also comes from other types of renewables including several solar photovoltaic installations and thermal power plants that burn sugar cane by gas so however the significant reliance on one of type of generation which is hydropower has implications for energy security especially in the context of climate change and the vulnerability of the region and the country in particular to climate change impacts which of course has consequences on the availability of water resources and further when it comes to other types of renewables that allow power generation which are mainly solar systems standards for these solutions exist but are reportedly rarely enforced and this is we understand that it's mainly due to some limitation and capacities the Ugandan Bureau of Standards particularly outside of Kampala almost all solar systems and component are important and the National Bureau of Standards also sometimes relies on third parties to run testing of products these are located outside of the country which makes also more challenging the control of counterfeit products on the other hand the rapid increase in power generation sufficiently coordinated with investment and transmission and distribution as a result just so there is a significant amount of power that is generated but is not used this has added significantly to the cost of power as the government had to pay also for demand power that has not been able to use but it's important to note the government has decided with IPPs to remove the close of pay or take which requires the government to use this energy that is not used so these high tariffs of course have been a barrier to electricity consumption for many consumers for them even those who have access the cost has discarded uses creating additional challenges in terms of create extension meeting operation and maintenance expenses and part of the response of the government to these challenges he has recently decided to remerge the three utilities the one on generation transmission and distribution into a one vertically integrated Uganda national electricity company so in light of this context if we move to the recommendations we've put a number of these next slide please we recommended our analysis for the government to strengthening and enforcing quality standards for renewable energy systems notably standalone solar PV with in-country testing whenever it is possible and also supported by public awareness campaigns also addressing the transmission issue and boosting productive use of energy and maximizing existing generation cost reduction and potential customer expansion thirdly we encourage continued consultation also with other stakeholders in the power sector reforms and providing additional clarity on the plans this is something that we've been hearing quite a number of times when performing the interviews with different stakeholders they had some uncertainties also on the near-term future that would be impacted by the sector reforms and finally we also propose to further develop interconnections and power trade between the neighboring countries to take advantage of this access of power these are only a few recommendations of course in the report you have more context and additional ones also to consider link to power sector we move to access to electricity and here again if you see the graph we see that over the years Uganda has made steady progress in increasing access to electricity and currently around 30% of the population has access up from barely 15% in 2010 so doubling in just a decade however also it's important to note that there are disparities of access to electricity between rural and urban areas only one in seven has access in rural areas where in urban areas the access rate is 80% while most households with access to electricity have been connected to the national power grid of grid solutions have gained a significant role especially in the past five years and this also mainly for rural households who predominantly rely on non-grid solutions like solar nontens rechargeable flashlights and solar home systems but also sometimes unclean sources of energies like kerosene and candles and this joins the point that was raised in the power sector discussion earlier with the need to really enhance standards for these solar products the government and its development partner have pursued several policies and programs to enhance electrification by addressing crucial issues such as grid connections and rural electrification and private distributions also have played a significant role selling around 300,000 off grid electricity system annually since 2018 the government provides a number of benefits for private companies such as favorable tax regimes and regulations like VAT exemptions or import duty waivers on solar PV panels and batteries however also from what we understood from our discussions many of these measures are widely perceived as uneven and inconsistent sometimes also refunds for them take sometimes a long time affordability as raised earlier by Madam PS is also a big challenge as households are financially constrained both for getting the connection to a source of power and then also to acquire an appliance and finally to consume electricity once connected and as raised earlier the situation hampers the profitability of electrification projects and significantly reduces the interest of private investors especially in rural and remote areas so moving to also a small set of recommendations that we proposed we propose that to address these issues the government could consider enhancing policies for fair market conditions for the private sector covering customs tax regimes enforcement of quality standards et cetera and collaborating with financial partners to design schemes that enable private sector providers and off grid companies to offer affordable electricity through sustainable and scalable business models now moving to even more urgent issue to address which is access to clean cooking in Uganda but also this is a topic of high priority in the whole region in Sub-Saharan Africa but looking at Uganda here again made substantial progress over the recent years in terms of providing access to clean cooking solutions however current access rates remain low according to our data these are standing to around 6% we see in one of the grives one on the right that there are some rather concerning statistics as we see around 95% of households in Uganda rely on either wood or charcoal as their primary energy source for cooking and there are several challenges that stand in the way of improving access to cooking affordability here again in our sector remains the main concern improved cook stoves and alternative fuels are more expensive than biomatch which is when collected is often perceived as being free this along with a lack of financing options for stove distributors and potential customers as well as insufficient distribution of infrastructure for LPG another point that also comes out is the lack the cultural and behavioral issues as these can be barriers to improving access because even when households adopt clean cooking technology they do often this incompletely the government to tackle this has implemented several instruments and mechanism for instance to lower the cost e-cooking tariffs for electricity cooking is available to all pre-connected customers but the low connection rates makes the option unavailable to most of the households the government is also promoting the use of LPG including through the distribution of free startup kits including free cylinders and the construction of filling stations outside of Kampala as well as standardization of LPG cylinders so improved cook stoves relying on biomas as fuel will continue to be used with the country transitions to modern cooking solutions therefore it is important to ensure sustainability of biomass used for both upstreams and downstreams processes we see also a need to make sure that the national clean strategy the government is very commendable for the development of such a strategy there is a need that this strategy includes plans for sustainable use of biomass but also other clean cooking solutions and backed by tools like technical assistance and financial incentives to encourage the uptake of these solutions the next area we will be looking at is the oil and gas sector oil accounted for less than 10% of Uganda's total energy supply into 2020 and this oil was primarily used for road transport the country's first two domestic oil development projects Tilanga and Kingfishers are expected to begin production in 2025 and the development of a refinery to be located in Kabali Hoima district has long been a goal of the government a consortium that includes the main upstream developers total energy Sinok of China Uganda National Oil Company and the Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation is planning to build a crude oil pipeline to the port of Tanga and Tanzania so these are mainly the oil project Uganda is currently developing so as a land-legged country Uganda faces the challenge of energy security as it needs to import via third countries and currently it's about 80% coming through Kenya and the rest via Tanzania and both the East Africa crude oil pipeline and the refinery could contribute to Uganda's energy mixing security reducing then reliance on imported oil products all stocks also if well managed can play an important role in energy security and there is also a name to have outputs of LPG from the two oil production sites which is expected to be three to a kilo barrels a day this can provide LPG to the domestic market and also importantly contribute to access to clean cooking solutions playing therefore an important role in helping Uganda transition from the use of biomass to clean cooking solutions and further to these oil production sites that the government is also planning for significant output from the refinery all tax and non tax revenues for the government from oil are received by the Uganda revenue authority deposited in the petroleum fund designed to ensure that the revenues from petroleum resources are well managed and allocated for the benefits of current and future generations as well as for the development of infrastructure in the country now as the government of Uganda develop its oil projects our recommendation would be for the government to consider the following this one is almost the first recommendation on making sure that oil projects are consistent with energy transition plan of Uganda is of course something that the government is currently working on very closely also there is a need of course to continue complying with environment and social requirements given the impact of these projects second while upstream projects can play a significant role in a country's economic and social development it's important to ensure that all revenues are well managed and with the petroleum fund we just raised as an initiative by the government we of course highly recommend this this continues to be the case in that the petroleum fund continues to be well managed and monitored third the government could consider developing a policy for maintaining and managing oil stocks to strengthen supply of oil security and then it's important also to note that as a word transitions successfully to zero emissions by 2050 other clean project energy projects needs to be developed but this is again something that the government is working on currently and it will be the main focus also of the integrated energy resource master plan to define the projects that will in the end lead to the attainment of the energy development in the country critical minerals now so after decades of stagnation and mining activities in Uganda initial exploration began in 2000 and has now recovered Uganda has discovered deposits of minerals that are criticals for the worldwide transition to cleaner energy systems including copper, cobalt crefat and rare earth elements however there is currently no production of critical minerals in Uganda the production includes today limestone, pozolona and vermiculite along with a small amount of gold new policies and legislation have been introduced these include for example the Mining and Minerals Act of 2022 the mining and mineral policy of Uganda 2018 just to cite a few as well as national policies such as the vision 2040 of course in the national development plan 3 there is still limited investment also in large scale mineral production and it's important to maintain an efficient transport infrastructure to connecting Uganda with international markets when it comes to also exporting the minerals to other parts in the world especially since the country is long locked a stable power supply is also important since the mining industry is highly energy intensive the production of critical minerals generally requires significantly more energy than that of metals such as iron since the oil for critical minerals is usually less concentrated this means that the production also has a high number of emissions of GHG emissions and many mining companies driven by investors needs and consumers to consume low impact products aim to cut their emissions from mineral production this comes of course from electricity and fuel consumption for refined copper production just to give some examples switching to renewable energy can reduce carbon intensity by 2 thirds while using electricity over fossil fuels can achieve a 90% reduction according to some other IEA analysis Uganda has earlier abandoned hydropower resources and renewable energy that could help make the country a relatively low carbon source of critical minerals and the mining sector may be able to learn lessons also from the investment experience of the countries and the petroleum sector this includes the development of sector legislation local capacity building and the creation and management of a national resource company some of our key recommendations we suggest here in the mining and the critical minerals is to leading initiatives to attract investments in mineral production with a priority to critical minerals that are essential for the country and the global transition to renewable energies developing also a roadmap for infrastructure development such as railway extensions so that investors can better plan the development of resources in anticipation of demand this is something again that will be part of the integrated energy resource master plan and finally evaluating the energy requirements of mining operations by improving data collection and investing, investigating possibilities for providing low power for mineral processing now coming to another topic that is a high priority worldwide and of course in Uganda which is energy efficiency again starting from a few data, we see that energy intensity in Uganda has declined by 35% over the last two decades but despite this progress the country still has a relatively high intensity compared to other countries in the sub Saharan Africa region such as Senegal for instance and Morocco in Africa a significant contribution to this is the heaver reliance on biomass for cooking in the residential and building sector which dominates the energy consumption but efforts are underway to establish Uganda first legal regulatory and enforcement framework for energy efficiency following the adoption of the 2023 national energy policy the absence of such a legal framework has previously hindered several measures such as the development and enforcement of new buildings and also the establishment of labelling and the enforcement of the minimum energy performance standards Uganda also faces a challenge in its aging vehicle fleet which has implications for the environment and the CO2 emissions in Uganda primarily generated from fuel combustions mostly from the transport sector while if we look at electricity given the fact that it's of course almost all renewables it's only account for 1% of emissions in Uganda Looking at recommendations here we see that incentives and dedicated funding instruments such as grants preferential loans and tax incentives for the perf shades of energy efficient equipments by end users can leverage the potential of energy efficiency and should be an area of focus also digitalization can play a role in improving efficiency in various sectors and avoiding losses could be further developed also in Uganda and also of course there are many advantages of fostering the growth of immobility starting from the two and three wheelers we're almost there now we're going to look at the energy climate change in the environment in Uganda and Uganda's energy sector has a significant environment impact including and mainly on deforestation and biodiversity loss giving the huge amount of biomass used so the air pollution is also a concern as just seen due to widespread use of biomass but also the aging fleet of vehicles the government has taken steps to mitigate deforestation particularly by promoting clean cooking access through much remain to be done given the populations continued high dependence on biomass the government is also considering the future impact of extractive operations on land, water and air pollution as well as adaptation measures in the sector particularly related to the vulnerability to climate change of the country's large hydropower generating capacities also Uganda is looking at the potential of energy approaches which has the potential of reducing unsustainable biomass consumption further to the recommendations related to the sustainable use of biomass and the promotion of clean cooking solutions we've just seen previously the government in our point of view could also consider enforcing strict environmental assessments monitoring and reporting for oil and gas mining projects and also the government could develop further initiative in circular economy particular those aimed at using sustainable types of waste as an energy source and now last but not least another key topic, key areas that has been also a focus for this particular report but more broadly at the IEA as we continue to develop our work in Africa the issue of investments to make these all aspirations possible Uganda has created a solid investment environment to both international and private investors and has proved successful in attracting investment to the oil and gas and the power generation sector to meet its growing energy demands as we see from this graph FDI to Uganda has been above the average for eastern South Africa reaching nearly 3% of GDP between 2017 and 2021 this is hugely attributed to reforms including the creation of the Uganda Investment Authority however we see also that compared to the region the rebound after the COVID crisis has been slow and this is mainly due to the fact that Uganda's investment are mainly commodity based essentially oil and we are aware of also the slow down in terms of investment decisions in the oil sector two major challenges lie ahead first planning and standardization there is a vital need to run detailed energy sector development plans with the objective to identify which sectors and which project should be the priority and also which players should be involved in there and here again look at how to mobilize the private sector of course again this will be further tackled and enhanced as the government is working on development its integrated energy resource master plan and the second one is also true for the whole continent the issue of accessing affordable capital the cost of capital in Uganda remains one of the major challenges across the energy sector and these costs being passed through to consumers via the tariff reducing these tariffs will then rely on attracting cheaper capital across the electricity system and these challenges to attract appropriate and affordable capital are particularly exacerbated for the local developers so in order to tackle the just mentioned challenges we put forward the few recommendations the need again to enhance planning and identifying key projects for private public partnerships sorry as the most appropriate source of capital and the integrated energy resource master plan will help again achieving this attracting domestic capital is key in particular for local development this needs to come with huge amounts of capacity buildings also on business models for the local banks for them to understand also how the objectives of the local startups, local entrepreneurs and the local businesses also of course collaborating with partners to cut capital cuts ensuring domestic financers play a role in designing blended finance instruments especially those with grant equity and debt elements in multiple stages and finally as mentioned in the power sector section keeping the investment on transmission and distribution on top of the priorities as well as driving in further investments with this, I will stop here thank you very much thank you, guide with the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation and you may notice that I have the same surname as the ambassador and this is the main occasion I'm here, I'm fortunate to be back in Uganda after 17 years I work here not at the embassy, I don't work with the Norwegian energy portfolio I work home office for NORAD and I report to NORAD and is by no means under the instruction of her excellency hi everyone Stella Mandago with African Development Bank I work in the energy sector with the African Development Bank I've been working in different countries over seeing the energy portfolio ranging from investment issues policy issues and knowledge work model so I'm happy to be in Uganda I've been working with Dr. Gerard in his team so yep, that's me, thanks yeah, once again Gerard Bernaga I've not been around for quite a long time maybe 24 years yeah, I worked first in the downstream midstream petroleum upstream I've worked with the minerals I've worked with the energy in the last 8 or so years yes, and I'm the task team leader of the assignment, thank you yeah, James Barnaby with about 27 years of experience in the energy sector I used to work for the ministry as many of you know currently a consultant with modern energy cooking services this is a UK funded project that's promoting cooking with electricity during the break those are the questions who are asking me how do we manage to cook with electricity I'm the champion for that at the moment, thank you thank you, Valentirina Nabed Africa program officer I'm mainly in charge of the east and the central Africa and I have the hard duty to speak for many colleagues who worked on this project from across the sectors again, thank you for being here and I'm happy to be part of this panel again so let me start with you let me start with you Serine you're from the Norwegian Embassy they've found it important to invest resources into developing developing this the idea and we want to understand we've had it is the first in the sub sub-saharan Africa we want to understand where is it so important and why have the rest of the ya no, has the rest of the continent not taken it so seriously, why are we the first, just put it in context briefly. Thank you, yeah, and let me briefly explain. I was invited by a good colleague Samuel Kajubat in the Wheaton Embassy to step in for this panel discussion and it was with the argument that Norad represents the future. And as I think most of you are aware of the embassy has decided to close down here in Uganda by the end of July, which is a very unfortunate and not easy to understand decision, but that is the that is the provotive of our politicians. But we have a marching order. We have quite significant engagement here in Uganda. And the marching order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to continue that engagement. Energy is among the priority sector for our future cooperation with Uganda. And I think that will be followed up by Norad Oslo headquarters as well as the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Now we norad Norway supported the independent review. And this is part of a broader engagement we have with our good colleagues in IEA. We were also contributing funding for the Africa Outlook Net Zero 2022 report. And in response to your question why are not all the African countries engaging. IEA will as part of this cooperation also be engaging with Mozambique on a similar policy review. So colleagues in Africa are coming on board on this. And I think overall it's very good to see IEA engaging more actively in Africa. I think they've really made a stance on clean cooking as a topic and the work they're doing on finance and governance is also very appropriate for the sector. And as you all are aware they are already in flight mood on the energy transition for Uganda to be presented at the COP. So why do we do this? I think we are in agreement. This is a need for fact based decision making. And I think we all appreciate IEA's capacity to analyse and compare and provide feedback on political priorities. And also explain what will be the outcome of some decisions. So can I continue a little bit just to reflect on the recommendations in the report? In another two minutes. Oh yeah. I'll be brief. Thank you. Yeah, I think I really wanted to go into some of the key recommendations but I think just to confirm how we see this as important and relevant. I wanted to just briefly reflect back on what has happened here in Uganda over the last 25 to 20 years. And it's been a very significant development with establishing the institutional framework, the regulator, the unbundling of the Uganda electricity board. When I last worked here you had a very tough power crisis that was in the period 2003 to 2006. I worked very hard but when I left still it was to be worse before it became better. At that time we did support the investment in the November heavy fuel oil generation facility. And that seemed very relevant and good move compared to the very costly hired agreco diesel generators that you had to use at that time. And we had action on other fields. We had the institutional cooperation between the region water resources and the energy directorate and the regulator. We started the twinning program between UTCL and Stotnet. And we started also that period the oil for development program. And we started what I hope is still a very active group, the energy sector working group as a platform for coordination between development partners. Now looking back it's very obvious that you have moved from a poverty deficit to a very large surplus. And the challenge now is to make good use of that surplus. You're also about to become an oil exporter and much of what is needed in terms of the institutional regulatory framework is in place. And I think some other changes I noticed is that there are many more development partners around the table. There's been proliferation in energy programs and it's a very much clearer focus on this mobilization of commercial investments. And I think you are now I think you are setting a record now because you have almost as you publish your new national energy policy the 2023 energy policy. Almost the same time simultaneously you published a review of that policy. And it's confirming I think much many of the political priorities you have opted for. Key challenges for me my take on this is electricity and cooking access rates. I think that's a very important topic and also productive use of electricity. The energy transition for me is mostly about transitioning from biomass. I think that's the key one for Uganda. Now the three recommendations I wanted to hold in on is the one on energy planning and I'm very glad to see that you are already in action following up on the integrated energy resource plan. My humble input to that part of the continued process would be it's important that this is aligned with regional planning. And so you don't end up with different priorities at national and regional level. And EIPP will be huge opportunity for energy security and also offset of your significant power resources. Planning needs to be realistic. And this means that it can't be a wish list a political wish list of what you want to achieve. It must be based on reality because if it's not realistic then it will not be able to inform investment decisions. And then GIS based that's music in my ears. So you get a combination of where the energy loads are where the infrastructure might go on a geographical basis. And this is very useful input not only to delineate where the grid will extend but also very important clarification for the private sector on in what areas they should be engaging. And I think we have some interesting experience on that from both Tanzania and Mozambique that we could share with you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll be getting back to you. I wanted Syrian to come in here because IEA. How did you end up in Uganda? And we needed to understand is this subject still uninteresting to the majority of African countries energy planning. Just put it in context then we'll go on with the discussion. Hello. Yes. Great. Yes. Well, the Africa program within the agency keeps growing really a lot. And we keep engaging with several countries. We've been working already since decades. Of course, as you all know now the IEA is the authoritative agency to provide energy data. And we've been working since decades with partners including in Africa to collect energy access data. But also since recent years we've been engaging more and more with individual countries because of course we all know that if you want to move in the energy development. This is a worldwide issue and we need to be working with all partners around the world. And now we've had this great interactions at the highest level. Our deputy also had several interactions with the minister and they exchanged on the priorities of Uganda and how the IEA also can contribute. And this led us to define a work plan starting with this in depth energy policy review that just to note this is something the IEA has been doing since its creation in 1974 for its member countries every five years. Because this goes with the idea of having like mindness between member countries and it has proven to be really efficient tool also to encourage peer learning. And the IEA again is beyond giving access to data and comprehensive data is also a platform for global energy dialogue. So we thought that also other partner countries, key partner countries, we could engage with them in this type of projects. And this is the case for Uganda this year where again as mentioned we've involved experts from France, from Norway, from Italy, from Portugal, from the US also who joined this mission and shared insights also from practices that they have in their own countries. Speaking about other Sub-Saharan African countries we are also launching the same project. Of course it's always designed to the local context so you won't see the same structure as for another country. We've defined the priorities for Uganda together with the ministry of Uganda and now we are about to launch another report with Senegal. Again this has been done in a close collaboration with the ministry and we keep engaging again thanks to the support also of NORAD for Mozambique. We will be doing also this project with Kenya and more are to come and as we also continue to develop this great bilateral work relationship with African countries. I'll stop here. I spoke too much already. Thank you so much. We need to understand the role of development partners especially in terms of leveraging the knowledge from idea to better support government efforts towards clean energy. I think let me start from the African Development Bank perspective first. African Development Bank has five key strategic initiatives or areas that we really focus on. And before I go there let me acknowledge the work of IEA first we work with IEA we do appreciate your level and quality of data so thank you and is happy to know that we are taking an assignment from where you've been working. Okay, so let me go back. We have five key areas we have light up and power Africa. There's integrated Africa transform quality of lives of Africa industrialize and feed Africa. So if you look into those five, the backbone is light up and power Africa if you don't have light you don't have power. You cannot industrialize you cannot do anything almost so there is so much stake at just that one pillar to be able to hold the four pillars right. So if you look into just that one pillar of light up and power Africa which is is a common thread of our discussion here today. We are looking into the whole energy spectrum. And this is where we come also in partnership with other development partners at looking at all source of energy that will be able to reach the if it's a country goal or Africa goal let's say millennium, whatever go that specific country wants to achieve. So the partnership is key in this aspect. Taking an example drawing the lessons from the recommendations from today looking into clean energy critical mineral resources, everything that needs to be able to put that to move that needle a step farther into the energy sector. This idea is going to be critical as it's an underpinning framework into all the work we do this. What is saying to all development partners, the government has a clear direction and vision. They know where they are going in terms of the energy sector. So for us is much easier to align and coordinate our financing and any other level of support to be able to move in together with the government. So this is our role in our role has become more easy in this context, because the government has sent a clear message on where they want to go. In terms of energy sector, they want to look into all energy sources that are going to be able to move that needle to make sure there's that access for. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now over to Dr. Vanaga. In April this year the cabinet approved the new energy policy for this country. The targets that have been set in that policy, we would like you to help us understand how the idea, how this review is going to help the government of Uganda achieve its targets in the energy policy. Thank you very much. I have already spoken to my side right to the meat you see in 2008 or seven. I already report by one of the consultants which said, the government of Uganda wishes plans on oil where wishful thinking. So after that I walked to the Royal Norwegian Embassy said how can you support a country that has wishful thinking. We have received over $3.5 million. We undertook a comprehensive assessment of the oil industry and by 2010 we had the bankable results that have shaped the progress of the oil industry. What it is, is that if you check our colleague from Monorag, we want to ensure that the policies, the targets are informed by critical thinking and critical analysis. The policy has already given us targets. Our task is to design a framework that attains those targets. The energy minerals oil is a capital intensive sector with the longest station period. All investments have got to be justified. They have got to be verifiable and your analysis and approach has got to be beyond the reproach of many investors. We have put a million dollars. We are talking of 20 million dollars, 100 million dollars. Just check the projects in the energy sector. It is quite heavy and therefore how we inform these investments, how we inform our targets, how we inform our policies is critical. We are developing a quantitative and objective basis towards realizing the targets. Be it targets of energy access, be it targets of productive use of energy, be it targets of clean cooking, be it targets, I think I have talked about universal access. We have 20, 30 as a target universal. Be it targets on the improvement and incorporation of the critical minerals towards energy transition. Be it targets in green mobility, which is a big factor now, we need this basis that is strong, robust and liveable. That we can use to promote and also to engage with our possible investment and partners and also to benefit all the stakeholders in the sector. And so these plans are aimed at realizing those objectives that we recently received under the energy policy. Thank you doctor Banaga. Now let's get the perspective of the private sector. So Mr. Banaga, with your experience, with your knowledge of the sector, what opportunities do we have as a country in regard to moving towards clean energy. Just talk to us Roda. Thank you very much moderator. We all recognize that without increased access we cannot develop and therefore we, it's a challenge we must meet so that we can increase our access levels you saw in the figures that. Okay, in the rural it's only 20% that have access to electricity in the urban it's about 80. But at the same time, we are a very rich country. We've got a lot of resources as you saw a lot of renewables. We've got plenty for sunshine. We've got extra generation capacitors coming in. And therefore we have an opportunity to address our energy challenges because we are rich in in terms of energy resource. But however, that potential that we have of that resource that we have has got rich into our homes, it has reached to where the consumers are. And the integrated plan will definitely help us achieve that in a more systematic way. So, as you note, we are our population is highly dispersed so we can't have one form of reaching everyone. Some will extend the grid, but it's very expensive to extend to everybody. Therefore the off grid solutions will be very key. Some mini grids will also be very important for places where you've got high population concentrations. And of course the off grid for those who are very scattered. So that integrated approach or that combined approach will be very, very important. But one opportunity that we have is to do with on one side we've got this excess generation capacity that's coming in. And everybody is talking about that. On the other side we've got over dependence on biomass, which is not being used sustainably. You've had all these directives that are coming in to burn charcoal in some of the areas. But we note also that especially around the urban areas, there is a very good opportunity for promoting cooking with electricity and that's something that's on my heart. There is a new technology that many of you may not be aware of where you don't have to consume that much energy because it's a technology that is using is well insulated. It has a thermostat and it uses pressure, it uses pressure, that's an electric pressure cooker. It uses pressure and as long as your pressure is high and the temperature is high, the cooking will continue irrespective whether or not you're consuming electricity. So it's something that I think we also need to integrate in our planning because we're solving two things. One on the sustainability of biomass resource utilization, but also the excess power generation that we will grappling with how shall we make it, how shall we get it absorbed. We've made some estimations that if one million EPCs were distributed around 300 megawatts would be absorbed, but it comes with other challenges as we noted in the report. The infrastructure is not well developed within the country and therefore we've got to improve our infrastructure in terms of transmission as well as distribution. So we have that opportunity that we can utilize our resources to solve some of those challenges that we have but the challenges remain issues of affordability and we are glad that we have this world bank project, electricity scale project which is also going to address some of those affordability issues as well as the issues to do with behavior change. We need to I think address the issue of behavior change. I mean, some people are biased. There is a perception for instance that cooking with electricity is very expensive. And actually through our program, MEX is going to promote the distribution of electric pressure cookers starting with Umemi, because Umemi has been telling people that if your bill is high, it's likely you're cooking with electricity. So we want them first to appreciate that the technologies have changed, things have now changed and our interactions we've had, the Umemi people are very excited. But I believe that as we think about access, we need to plan access along with productive use and one of the things is, can we also promote clean cooking with access programs. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm informed that some of the pressure cookers is mentioning here, we have a team, do a demonstration at Amber House in our Kodrango on Monday. So if you have a moment you can walk past and see what is trying to describe how it works exactly. Please join me in thanking the panel for making us appreciate this unusual topic. We have another 15 minutes to interact. Let's get some feedback from you. We need to know whether you're following through, whether you're appreciating the subject, whether you have a contribution or a question. Kindly give it to us in a minute and where the panel needs to answer something, they should have a few other minutes to answer. There's a gentleman at the back and there is a lady here. I think I will take five. Please, your name and briefly say what you want to say to us. Okay, thank you very much. Once again my name is Patrick Edema and I work with Africa Institute for Energy Governance. An organization that works to influence energy policies that benefit the poor and vulnerable Ugandans. I'm so happy that at least the consultations by international energy agents participated in one of the two consultation meetings and you are here. I'm so excited that I'm also part of this meeting of Duntingda report. A few issues maybe I have is because if we are talking about the energy sector, how to look at also the energy transition plan, increasing access to electricity. The three components of increased access to electricity, the affordability, the reliability, the distribution. These are so key components in ensuring that the challenges within the electricity sector are addressed. Recently I was reading a report by the International Energy Agency and it was talking about the challenges of distribution that are limiting the efforts to energy transition. But also as Uganda we are looking at the access to electricity by 60% by 2030 and this is our target. But is this time enough for us, looking at the statistics that we have, people who have access for this electricity and which kind of work they use for. Because most of the communities, especially the majority who are in local communities, they don't use electricity for productive use. They use electricity just for lighting and they don't benefit from this electricity. Second in the report I would look at the last one. Yes, the final one is the oil and gas because we are looking at the energy transition. And if you look at like the commissioner said that they read all the reports and the recent report by the intergovernmental panel on climate change that was launched in March this year. It said that for us to meet the transition plans, the energy transition plans, we need to stop exploiting the fossil fuels. So if we are putting oil and gas into constellation, yes we said net zero is not about zero emissions but this will limit our efforts to ensure that we meet the commitments under the price agreement and other conversions over net zero. Thank you very much. Thank you, the lady. May I know whether we have other members who have something to contribute so we can plan the time. Okay, thank you so much. Once again, my name is Brenda Kankunda and I'm from the Department of Energy, Science and Technology under Makia Investi Business School. Just my observation goes to Miss Serene. We really understand that energy is highly capital intensive. Okay, and we have the energy literacy gap. Thanks to NREP, they have tried to recognize the universities, the high learning institutions, but to the reality, the research, the innovation. I'm sure Miss Serene, when you're doing this, you found lack of disaggregated data and it is a very big issue. So as researchers, how can we be involved? How can we really work because we have a affordability issue from an experiment that we did. We actually found that APCs are cheaper compared to other options followed by LPG, but the people are not aware about this. So energy literacy remains a very key gap that universities need to do research, innovation and also professionalization. You can agree with me that there's solar sector, there's so many installers, there's so many technicians, but they are not professional. So we have a lot of issues there. So I'm just wondering in this report, where are the universities, where are the learning institutions and how do you plan to bring them on board? Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other before I close this interactive? The Honorable Minister wants to speak to us. The Honorable Minister of Energy, Okasai Apalot. I'm going to limit myself to the discussion in front of us. The first speaker actually shocked me and I'll be interested to know why you're closing the embassy. It's rather something of policy nature. We have enjoyed good relationships with the embassy and so on. And then all of a sudden, come June, July, it will be no more we go back to working with you. Wow, that's important. I believe we shall get, I think we have eight minutes. Eight minutes. So each speaker here should say something in a minute and a half. In relation to what you've heard from Dekalari, let's start with Norad. The minister is concerned. Yeah, thank you. And Honorable Minister, let me refer that question to her Excellency, the ambassador. Can I... One small encouragement from me. I really encourage you all to take a very close look at the financing chapter of the EIA report. The challenges in being able to attain that affordable funding is... We must not underestimate it. We are now fronting macroeconomic headwinds. The cost of financing is increasing and study that figure where you get an illustration of how much more financing will cost. If the governance and institutional framework is not in place. And I think this is really a very important follow-up discussion in the implementation of these policies. That you take a close and very undiplomatic look at your governance challenges. And it's both within and beyond the sector. I think it's going to be important discussion also on how to re-bundle the utility. That's going to be an important one. The expectation is that this will save, this will promote efficiency. But I think we know all of us from different countries, different institutions that... Enabling, making sure that you get that horizontal interaction between sectors, institutions and departments. You can't... It's not... Putting everything into one institution doesn't always solve the matter. So I think getting a clear idea of expectations of what you will be able to save also in that reorganization process is going to be a key one. Thank you. So Stella, anything? Did you pick anything that you want to speak to briefly? I have five minutes to end this session. Okay, I pick up half of something. So I'll speak to the half of energy is a capital intensive. And I think that's why it speaks to why we are trying to do coordination. We're here understanding that energy sector is a very capital intensive sector per se. And what we are really trying to do here, we are trying to coordinate ourselves as development partners, see for example how much investment is needed, but also recognizing that we can not all just as development partners support the sector by ourselves. So we look at the instruments to leverage the financing from let's say private sectors and other stakeholders. In terms of knowledge, knowledge gap and bringing the high institutions, I think that depends on country to country and there are different frameworks. I'll give you an example. We had a project where in Tanzania, we did work with one of the university in Mwanza because of providing data. So I think there is a variation to country to country. I think that part I'll leave it to Dr. Jarrett maybe to speak to it. Thank you. Thank you. Before Dr. Banaga speaks, the Honorable Minister of State for Mineral Development wanted to chip in Honorable, you have the floor. Thank you very much. I'd like to raise our excellency very much. And what I have heard from my friend, the first speaker there, he chalked us the way he has chalked my friend. For me, I've been working in touch with the Norwegian Embassy for a long time. The success of our oil now, it has been, nor which has been the backbone. We are advising us what to do in financing it. I was in the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Education years back. Norway was very prominent and then I came to this ministry and went even to the Ministry of Works. All that time Norway has been our old name. Now to hear that you are going to shock us, but since you cannot change the policy, I would like to ask you to take our appreciation for you having been here before and say you could go when your financial situation stabilizes, you could come back to Uganda. So we shall keep the embassy open when you think you are close, the houses will be open, you will go away because we think you will come back. So when you go there don't forget us, otherwise our country is very grateful to you people. Take our best wishes to them and say we wish you a happy time. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Honorebo. That's a good message to our supporters because Uganda is very blessed indeed to have you, to have worked with you for a very long time. So Dr. Banaga briefly. I'm glad our political leaders have expressed that point. The issues for the ability and all that is what we are trying to solve. In fact one solution is just to grow the demand. You see sometimes you can foresaze laws, apply a crescent man, but sometimes you have to go to Adam Smith, demand will optimize supply. The desegregated data, the research institutions wait for the next stage because that's what we are sorting out. There is a lot of planning here in this country in this sector, but we are trying to aggregate that. That's why we are speaking of integrated. Of oil. Afiego. The one of oil, I'm sure the ministers will speak to it. Our task wait for the energy transition plan. What we've done is to model the role of oil in the country's energy transition plan. The energy transition plan is not a fit for all. No. And this was the challenge we had even at COP 27. Last year, the other years, the force was high until we put in an effort to push back and explain ourselves. And the question was, can you please show us your plan? Now we have done this plan by the way rigorous. And we'll present the role of oil in the transition. We even met that member of parliament. We know why they were failing from European with the minister. And he had a good chat with the minister. And we realized what they were doing. But now we have analyzed properly, objectively, this country and formulated the plan. And we believe analysis is not hedge-hedge. It's robust. And by the way, we are probably some of the best trained and knowledgeable people in this sector. You can Google us. So if there is an IPPC, please bring them to us. I'm happy to meet them and we have a real exchange. But the team, the work they have done is good to explain Uganda's plan and its utilization of its resources. In wild meeting our national and international obligations with regard to missions. And we will be able to show that on the ETP. Just watch us the 5th of December when we launch it. Thank you. And yeah, Mr. Vanneve. Maybe I'll speak to the issue that Fiego raises. Wondering whether we can achieve the 60% level of access. Now that 60% includes off grid, includes the solars. And if you look at the current statistics, I think we're around 50%. I see the commissioner shaking his head in terms of access. So it's not a very high figure. Actually it can be surpassed. But as you heard, there's a challenge of standards. The standards in the solar systems especially can be addressed. The current alternatives that people are using are even more expensive. And therefore we need to do a lot of awareness. And we would wish Fiego society helps us on that in terms of creating awareness that people can know that the clean energy forms actually help them providing better health, better lighting and the like. And we've a lot of interest, a lot of interest from the development partners with that World Bank project, with all these partners that are around. I'm sure that target can be reached. And the plan, there are those who have said that we're waiting for that plan. But once they see the integrated plan, they will see how to come in. So it's a target we can reach. Thank you. Thank you for the optimism and saying we, yeah, you want a minute? Even less, I spoke too much because also my other colleagues in the panel have already replied to all of the questions, I guess. But just to conclude, we're very pleased to also pursue this work in this in depth energy policy review. As mentioned many times will feed in the energy transition plan. And I'm happy that this raised interest also to see how all the questions will be addressed in this plan. And we've had really lengthy discussions with the Ministry of Energy of Uganda regarding targets also how to achieve this, which time horizon. So just stay tuned to be patient until the 5th of December for the launch of the next project, which is the energy transition plan at COP 28. And we'll be looking for colleagues, let's put our hands together for the panel as I invite them off the stage now. Honorable ministers, permanent secretary, the deputy executive director of IEA, all protocol observed, ladies and gentlemen. As we have heard here today, Norway's cooperation with Uganda in the energy sector has been running for many years. And we believe that results will have a lasting impact. The overall aim of this cooperation has been to support Uganda in achieving its stated objective of ensuring a better future for its citizens through developing its considerable energy and mineral resources. Ending energy poverty and leading the country into a just energy transition. And now let me address the issue that has been taken up by the honorable ministers. Yes, I'm sure that it's a shock for Mania and I think it was for Mania within the Norwegian system as well. And as I have underlined to the honorable minister herself and also to the minister of foreign affairs and other officials on the Uganda side, this is a purely administrative decision. We are closing down several missions, six this year and two next year. And unfortunately Uganda is among those. And it does not reflect on the cooperation that we have had with Uganda. On the contrary, I think we are very proud of the cooperation we have had with Uganda within the energy sector. And I very much appreciate the kind words that have been said about the cooperation. And I think what you said about welcoming us back, that's the message that I have been given by all the others I have spoken to as well. It has been the officials I've been talking to the politicians that have said, okay, they understand Uganda also at one point had to close embassies, but they were opened again. They were reopened. So I will bring that message back to Oslo, say that we will be after we have closed in July next year, we will be welcome back. And I think also I should emphasize that as I said to minister O'Dongo, we hope to leave a solid footprint in Uganda. But not only a footprint. We actually hope to maintain a foot in Uganda. And I think the energy sector is really the area where we should look forward. And there is so much engagement from the Norwegian side in the energy sector. And as you are aware, a lot of the development cooperation to Uganda is already administered by Noorad, the development agency and not the embassy. So this will continue. So I think in spite of the fact that the embassy is closing July next year, we should have the courage also to look beyond July next year. So back to the report and this lounge. I think it's a very, thank you for a very good event. And it's been very interesting for me to listen to all the intervention and the panel. And like other energy projects that Norway has supported over the years, we are very proud to be associated with this study. And we are definitely pleased to witness the launch of this in-depth policy report. And I should pick up what the commissioner was saying about my predecessor, Madam Aileen Osterbejo Hansen. I know she was particularly interested in the energy sector and she was very engaged in the work with IEA. And I know she would have loved to be here today. So I will definitely communicate with her when I get back from this event. In the dialogue preceding this study, I think everybody has come to the realization that long-term energy planning is central to our country's strategic direction and energy security. Without that, governments may end up relying on a patchwork of policies and legislation that can be incoherent and ill-suited for the complex challenges countries are increasingly faced with. On this basis, the embassy, as part of its energy portfolio, decided to support the Ministry of Energy to work with IEA to create a reputable, consistent and accurate energy data baseline from a globally trusted source. That could be the first port of call for all national energy data. The report will not only provide a sound basis for evidence-based policymaking, but it is an important tool of reference point for public and private investment, contributing to a sustainable energy sector. And we hope that this report will be one of the important tools for Uganda to use in positioning itself to attract much needed investment in the energy sector to provide clean, affordable and more reliable energy alternatives. So I take this opportunity to congratulate IEA and the Ministry of Energy for the successful cooperation in completing the report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for speaking to us and giving us the assurance that not all is lost even after you live. We have the agency here with us to continue with the work, the work you've been doing in this country. Allow me to invite the Deputy Executive Director of the IEA, Madam Mary Bruce Walik to speak to us. You must welcome. Good afternoon, everyone. Honorable Minister Okasai, Honorable Minister Locares, Ambassador Hermanson, distinguished guests, esteemed colleagues and valued partners. It's really a great honor and pleasure to be with you today at this wonderful occasion. It's been such an interesting morning listening to everyone present and to participate in this launch of the Uganda Energy Policy Review, which the IEA has been very delighted to partner with all of you on. And I really want to begin by expressing my particular gratitude to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda for co-hosting this event and extending a very warm welcome to me and my IEA colleagues, my colleague Serene in particular here in Kampala. Last year I had the pleasure of launching another major IEA report on clean energy transitions in the greater Horn of Africa. This event was also co-hosted by the Ministry of Energy of Uganda right here in Kampala. Unfortunately, I was only able to join you remotely, but today I'm very delighted to be able to be here in person with all of you. So, Ministers, I would like to express our sincere thanks to you and your dedicated teams, in particular Madame Irene Vetebe, the Permanent Secretary and Mr. Gerald Bananga-Baengi, Assistant Commissioner of Technical Planning for the excellent collaboration on the Uganda Energy Policy Review, the first of its kind, as was mentioned, for the IEA in Sub-Saharan Africa. It's just been a great pleasure working with all of you and thank you so much for your dedicated efforts and helping us collaborate on this. And Honorable Minister, your insights during the review visit help the IEA to understand the key challenges Uganda is facing and the commendable efforts the nation is taking to develop its energy sector and ensure universal access to energy. We at the IEA certainly have learned a lot through this process and through our close cooperation from the moment we started on this project back in January of this year. So we've come a very long way in a relatively short time. But the IEA and the government of Uganda, as have been mentioned, have been engaged in a close and fruitful partnership for many years, sharing energy data and knowledge, and of course we look forward to continuing that great collaboration. And I certainly would like to express our sincere gratitude to you, Ambassador Hermanson, for the work that you and your team at the Embassy have provided in collaborating on this and other energy programs here in Uganda. Your unwavering support for this project has been truly invaluable. And additionally, a big thank you as well to NORA, to the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation for your generous support for this project in particular, but more broadly to the IEA work right across the continent as has been described. And finally, I'd like to extend my thanks to the numerous stakeholders from the Ugandan government and the energy sector who supported the energy policy review. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank my own colleagues. So Serene in particular and also Rebecca Gagan who is our division head for this part of the world and I know is the team leader for the energy policy review early this year. So over a full week, our team met with 200 energy stakeholders in Uganda and this experience has been extremely useful in helping us understand not only the energy challenges that Uganda faces, but also of course the many opportunities that exist with the abundant resources that your country has. These discussions were instrumental in shaping the reports that we are launching here today which provides detailed insights into the Ugandan energy sector, highlighting the remarkable progress that Uganda has achieved in recent decades while also suggesting recommendations for ways in which Uganda can further enhance its energy sector and I trust and hope that our recommendations are very much taken in that spirit. The Ugandan government has set forth an ambitious agenda with clear objectives and these objectives include developing its substantial energy and mineral resources to support rapid economic development, achieve universal access to clean cooking and electricity, enhance energy security and improve affordability all while maintaining sustainability. And Uganda really has a unique context. You have substantial energy and mineral resources, extensive technical expertise well-defined government and policy frameworks and a clear vision to transform into a modern and prosperous country as stated in your vision 2040. So with this report we hope we've captured this unique context and our aim really is to contribute to Uganda's upcoming milestones, your own milestones, particularly the energy transition plan in which our teams have also been actively involved in close partnership with the ministry and we look very much forward to the launch of that plan at COP28. This situational analysis serves as the foundation for Uganda's energy transition plan and it assesses the entire energy sector as was briefed already by Surin covering areas such as power, renewable energy, access to energy, extractives, climate and environment, energy efficiency and of course investment as we heard loud and clear is just very, very important. And we just heard from so many colleagues today some of the main findings and recommendations from the report and I think it's really been a rich discussion so I just want to thank everyone who's participated both in the preparation of the report and in the discussions today and certainly we haven't had time to cover them all but there are, I hope you will agree a number of interesting recommendations so we really encourage all of you who haven't had yet a chance to read the report I know we have some printed copies available it's also available online on the IEA website so you can always find it there and the report as I mentioned really commends Uganda's progress over the past two decades in providing access to electricity and expanding generation capacity and I think your future goals in this regard are very important and it's truly impressive to note that the country's electricity sector is now predominantly based on renewable resources with hydropower and solar PV sectors continuing to grow. Uganda has also made significant strides in energy balances and related data and is a leader in the region in terms of energy statistics and we thank you for the participation that you've also had in some of our ongoing training programs but we do also acknowledge as has been mentioned that some challenges persist particularly in terms of consistent data which is often linked to insufficient resources and another significant challenge already described is in achieving universal access and reliable energy sources for electricity and clean cooking and I think that's been well recognized and finally electricity represents only 2% of Uganda's final energy consumption with more than 85% in the form of bioenergy mostly wood and charcoal consumed by households for cooking. The government surely recognizes these challenges and is taking important and notable steps to address them which will be described in the upcoming energy transition plan as well. So at the IEA as I mentioned we really hope that this report will help to identify a pathway to enable Uganda your policy makers yourselves to achieve the goals you yourself want to ensure secure sustainable energy supplies that enable the country to prosper. Please consider us an ongoing partner as you move forward and thank you so much once again for your kind hospitality today. Thank you for your great working with all of you. Another round of applause for the deputy executive director. Thank you very much for speaking to us. Now we have one to go but Honorable Minister I'm not competent to invite you so I will invite your colleague to greet us and invite you. Honorable Okasai, you're invited to invite your brother. Honorable Minister your excellency the ambassador the director development partner and I see the rest of us are actually colleagues technical so I'm delighted to be here and given this opportunity and I will actually start by appreciating the Norwegian ambassador for actually being always just always been there for us and this road where we came from came from a dinner where the ambassador I was on leave and then she insisted I must come for dinner and I had to travel all the way to come for dinner and then Sirin and the team were presenting some data where Sirin yes when they presented the data after the dinner they almost ran out of their skins because I was so unhappy with what they presented because all they were presenting was from outside Africa and I immediately said no this has to change in the presence of the ambassador and we went into a discussion after the dinner and what came out of the dinner is actually what we are witnessing today literally decision was made that we have got to generate and let Haav Uganda get the data and reflect where we want to go so thank you very much nice where I was feeling so sad that you are saying you are leaving I also want to thank the deputy chief executive officer we are not meeting for the first time we actually met and looked at where we wanted to go giving direction to the technical people where we wanted to go with developing this data I had to leave my staff in France with her with a clear instruction of what I wanted so I am actually delighted the technical teams have worked so hard we are not very patient with them you have got to do it and the Banaga had to stay in France with the team that we went with I said we are not going back to Uganda can you stay by the time you return I want to fast draft so thank you Banaga for actually taking the instruction seriously and when they were working the first meeting which they had there was a huge number from the other side and I was very clear in my mind what I wanted I wanted an integrated plan and I actually gave the instructions here I want they had over 20 people from the other side and I said I want them matched one by one if they had somebody on minerals I wanted somebody from minerals here renewable energy and was in this room I took a roll call if somebody was not here I would actually ring the PS and say I want so and so here and I'm so delighted with the outcome that we are witnessing today what I wish to bring out clearly getting out this policy review and call it integrated plan to me is the beginning of the job it is not what we expected as I was listening to it the outputs are very clear and they are really very good but this should be our first edition so this is the beginning of what we expect if we are to take this country forward when they initially presented it to me I asked a tough question again and I said look I'm not satisfied with this we have got to get call it a master plan but I want something which is implementable this is a framework the framework will not take us where I would wish to go so I would wish to thank the African Development Bank to have actually taken my comment seriously because I wanted now something that we can implement this is a framework it's a policy but we need to come up with an integrated implementation plan something which is which can be implemented and we can start monitoring ourselves so thank you very much African Development Bank for jumping in before even our first edition came out you are now a partner and I'm delighted the Norwegian Development Agency is here we are going to work together whether the embassy closes or it is open we are already partners in developing the next stage I will be knocking on your door I'm not very sure the African Development Bank alone will take me where I want I will actually be adding other development partners to come in including the NGOs and the media we need all of you it's about us this development it's not about somebody else it's about us can we lead because yes it's the first one in Southern Africa but we have got to lead all the way including the implementation of what we are developing I don't believe that we shall lack the resources where there is always a good program and you have determination to reach there we shall be there so my friend the executive director of me the development agency don't get scared get a good plan and we shall face we shall face the way we move there we are aware it is very expensive the figures may be scaring but break it down to implementable faces and we shall be there it's not about tomorrow but a long future so let's not be scared let's produce an excellent implementable document and then we set out priorities this is the comfort I would wish to give the partners I'm so also delighted that we are signing an MOU with the international energy agency this is what I was looking for because in my hard question why is this one elsewhere but not in Africa and I actually didn't know the question I asked can I get in can I be the first to get in so thank you very much for allowing me to hack into a system which was not meant for us thank you, thank you very much signing of the MOU means we are now partners I will not rush to what I was thinking that time I was actually telling international energy agency how does Africa become a member and I'm actually seeing us getting into it slowly we shall be there the data which you have produced is going to give us a planning tool which will enable us to be realistic in our plans watching out how we shall transition to clean energy to answer the question which one of the participants asked fossil fuels we are talking about fossil fuels but it is not going to be like turning a top and the water caps it's going to be gradually so nobody should be scared and when you look into what's in fossil fuels there are so many other uses I have a background in agriculture I need fertilizers and I will get them there I want to get the clothes I get it from petroleum there are so many alternative uses let's not focus just on energy there are so many other uses which we can exploit and benefit from this message we should go out we shall continue investing in petroleum because of the diverse uses including pharmaceuticals we can get them from the fossil fuels the scientists are actually challenged to develop this the academia why do you get scared this is a framework but in my mind the implementation we start with technology development and that's going to be your work so you better be prepared for it you are going to be captured when we are developing the implementation an investment plan which is the next stage so please pay attention when you are invited be there I will not want the questions to be asked when we are launching it it should be our document it is not my day to speak but those are my dreams I now wish to take this single honor to invite the minister who is going to talk now the policy mine is the thoughts so honorable minister I invite you to make an official statement thank you the minister has really talked well about energy and he has become energy himself my colleague minister energy goes now energy is flowing in his through his veins the beauty executive director of international energy agency your excellency an origin ambassador to Uganda he is going away and coming back we are going to play until you those people change their minds you come back because of the historical events that we have been having together we have been friends for a long time your own absence we shall feel it unless otherwise you leave somebody to be coming to meetings we shall hold the year all members of parliament chair persons of boards of different sectors of the agencies department secretary and you are represented from the government MDS esteemed colleagues from the international energy agency these new guests ladies and gentlemen good afternoon I'm sure time is not yet yet ripe for lunch so your energies and sugar levels are still intact therefore wish to continue I stand before you today on a large mark occasion for Uganda's energy into a future powered and empowered by sustainable energy with a great honor and profound sense of responsibility I once did lunch of the in depth review report of Uganda's energy sector in Kampala this collaboration between the Ministers of Energy and mineral development and the international energy agency marks a crucial step in accelerating our nations energy transition as articulated in our national energy policy for the year 2023 Uganda is indeed rich with potential not only in our abundant natural resources but in the spirit and determination of our people this access for our collaborative prosperity we believe in times of great transformation as our population grows so does the demand for modern clean and efficient energy the traditional reliance on biomass has been a testament to our residents but it also has a call for change for innovation and sustainable way forward our energy consumption currently at about as 6800 kilo kilo tons of oil equivalent must increase in quality and improve quality accessibility and reliability the in depth review we launched today offers a comprehensive assessment of our current energy landscape and a roadmap for achieving our energy goals it brings to light the recommendations that align with Uganda vision 2040 to transform into a modern and prosperous country key among the recommendations is developing and implementing an energy transition plan this is not a mere aspiration but a strategic road plan for action for each concrete plans that we can forward towards a low carbon climate resilient economy we will embrace innovative technologies signal solutions and align our strategies with international agreement including the parish agreement improving our national energy statistics systems is crucial for a fitness based policy marking data is the foundation for effective energy management and we shall strive to enhance our data coverage and quality capabilities in a hard raising transmission bottlenecks and stimulating demand for productive energy uses our agent priorities we aim to optimize our existing energy capacity ensure grid stability and reduce the cost of power thereby extending services to more of our systems so you have been very instrumental even in giving us the money for extensions very soon we shall have a lot of power and if we don't connect it means there will be a limited power which we shall be continuing to pay without anybody enjoying the power so that's why we need distribution and extension capabilities hard raising transmission bottlenecks and stimulating demand that's what we really want to do we want to connect and then stimulate demand as we navigate the power sector forms we pledge our commitment to clarity and transparency to all stakeholders our commitment today is the continuity of investment and maintenance within this emission grid during this transition period you see many people about today we are talking about energy transition which means we move without disruptions to achieve that the centralized world you cannot just move now when you don't have anything to put here to move and we have started that's why the minister was talking about the fossil fuel and people are wondering why we are moving ahead because of so many things happening to the world which at times disrupt continuity all of you know how the world is now there are some planes running around booming in other areas disrupting the supply which means we should have this well as we transition and then as you are transitioning this well as different uses I don't know whether in Norway you have already got some services for Tamak Tamak in the roads it is raining here now we need bitumen to put it there so that we remove the port oil from Kampala so that you drive very well plus other uses, they are there still but we shall go slowly until we reach there some companies have already invested in the infrastructure of this oil we need them to get this as we transform transition as we move slowly towards the attainment of clean energy in the world access to electricity remains a fundamental pillar of our national agenda we are steadifast in our pursuit to ensure that every connection brings light catalyzes economic development and energizes productive sectors of the economy national clean cooking strategy which is also under development will cover various technologies and consumer needs sustainable biomass operations and awareness raising initiatives will complement this strategy as will financial incentives and technical program assistance in alignment with the extractive industries transparency initiative Uganda will uphold the highest transparency and responsible management standards for our growing oil sector our goal is to ensure that the revenues generated for my oil resources are a blessing that is our nation fueling economic and social and sustainable development investment in our mineral resources particularly in the critical minerals necessary for the global transition to renewable energy is another avenue we are actively pursuing you see this is a very good thing as we transition then you see the minerals are very necessary for the development what transforms that transition you need the lithiums all these critical minerals good enough they are here we will need to develop them so that we transition when we have the necessary gadgets to go we are committed to financing further exploration and prioritizing areas with the highest potential for sustainable development here is the gentleman energy efficiency is the cuttings for development through incentives and dedicated funding investments we will promote the adoption of energy saving technologies and the update of immobility ensuring that every well done can benefit from sustainable energy solutions public private partnerships will be instrumental in realizing these goals we will identify critical sectors and projects that can benefit from such collaborations designing financing structures that serve our our nations and interests and those of the investing partners so we want to win a win-win situation those investing must recover what they have invested and their profits and our country allows you to repatriate what you have made in conclusion we chart this course for a sustainable energy future we do so with the understanding that is not just electricity we generate that will drive us forward but the collective determination of our people ingenuity and offering commitment to progress I thank the international energy agency for their partnership all the contributors for their insights and everyone present today for their commitment to a brighter more sustainable future for this country I thank the Royal Norwegian Government through our excellent ambassador for being a trusted partner I thank all our partners in the energy petroleum and critical mineral sector the development partners the investors and the key players who make things happen we these people here will make things in work every day and night to deliver our energy petroleum and mineral services without them will not be moving very far finally ladies and gentlemen I want to thank our technical teams who have ensured that this task is undertaken at the highest level of proficiency it deserves the international energy agency team led by Mrs. Rebekah Ms. Sirain El Abed our Uganda team led by the permanent secretary who is now replaced temporarily by the one who read the papers and Dr. Gerard Banaga who is the overall task team leader for this project and all the officers who have worked on this task I thank you very much I wish you well when you go to your respective areas over there in our country we better energize the work thank you