Uganda must use its energy and natural resources to build industries and create jobs rather than rely mainly on exporting raw commodities, Energy and Mineral Development Minister Monica Musenero said.
Musenero said government decisions on infrastructure and investment should be guided by three questions: where the money is, where the industries are and where the energy is.
“Oil, copper, gold, water and sunlight are not the end of the story. They are the beginning of industries,” she said.
“A project that answers one of these questions is only a project. A project that answers all three is a production system.”
Her comments reflect the government’s push to connect energy investment with its broader economic transformation programme, which prioritises agro-industrialisation, tourism, minerals and science and technology under the Tenfold Growth Strategy.
Musenero said Uganda’s challenge was not simply to generate more renewable electricity but to develop productive systems that convert energy into wealth, jobs and sustainable economic growth.
Uganda’s electricity system is already dominated by renewable sources. Installed generation capacity reached about 2,098 megawatts at the end of 2025, with renewable sources accounting for about 95% of capacity, according to the Electricity Regulatory Authority.
The government is also expanding transmission infrastructure to improve reliability for industries and other users.
In July, Uganda began construction of the $50 million Amari Power Transmission Project, which will upgrade four substations and add about 700 MVA of transformation capacity, according to the project announcement.
Uganda Investment Authority Director General Robert Mukiza said the country could build new investment opportunities around renewable energy and sustainable production.
He identified solar power, clean cooking, electric mobility, green building materials, waste-to-value and carbon markets as areas with potential for investment.
Mukiza also highlighted digital finance as a tool for expanding access to credit for smallholder farmers, citing mobile money, digital identity, satellite data and alternative credit-scoring systems.
UIA’s role, he said, includes facilitating investment, providing serviced industrial land and offering aftercare services to investors.
The push comes as Uganda seeks to expand an economy that the government has targeted for rapid growth under its Tenfold Growth Strategy.
The strategy places greater value addition, industrialisation and productivity at the centre of the country’s development plans.
For Musenero, the objective is to ensure that Uganda’s renewable energy expansion supports factories, agriculture, mineral processing, transport and technology businesses rather than simply increasing electricity supply.
The approach would also seek to retain more value from Uganda’s natural resources within the country by developing domestic processing and manufacturing capacity.
“The green infrastructure must not simply power Uganda; it must power Uganda’s transformation,” Musenero said.
