The African nation of Uganda has announced a new National E-Mobility Strategy that it hopes will energize its manufacturing sector by transitioning the country’s public transit sector fully away from fossil fuels by 2030.
Uganda’s National E-Mobility Strategy aims to transition the nation’s system of transit buses and motorcycle taxis to EVs by 2030 to supports its push to further into the automotive manufacturing sector. The $1.7 billion strategy also includes the deployment of up to 3,500 public EV charging stations, which will make it easier for more Ugandans to buy electric vehicles (probably affordable Chinese ones).
In addition, the strategy’s proponents project a 12.5% contribution to Uganda’s GDP, the creation of more than 500,000 green manufacturing jobs, and a reduction of more than 25% in the nation’s total transportation-related emissions.
“The government has made electric mobility a key driver of sustainable development,” explains Winstone Katushabe, commissioner for transport regulation and safety at the Ministry of Works and Transport. “I think very soon you will be seeing some buses in Kampala for Kiira.”
The scale of Uganda’s transition to e-mobility is incredibly significant. The nation has some 5,000 electric motorcycles already in operation – but that number represents less than 1% of Uganda’s vehicle total fleet, according to Katushabe.
The electric transition will rely heavily on KMC, a Ugandan state-owned EV manufacturer based in Jinja which has already deployed total of 37 electric buses as part of a pilot program operating along the Jinja-Iganga corridor in the eastern part of the nation.
Cosmas Twikirize, superintendent of the industrial value chain at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology, says that funding commitments secured during the initial round of partner engagement have already totaled $800 million, covering nearly half the planned $1.7B cost of the e-mobility plan.
Electrek’s Take
The dumbest, most confident American MAGA bro you know still thinks the majority of people in Africa live in huts and get chased by hippos on their way back from the watering hole – and precious few things make me happier than highlighting all the ways countries like Ethiopia (which successfully instituted a full ICE vehicle ban over two years ago) and Uganda (as discussed, above) are pulling ahead of oil-burning nations when it comes to technology and pollution controls.
Here’s hoping we get to publish a lot more stories like this, and about how the US plans to keep up with the rest of the world on the race to full electrification, in the years to come.
SOURCES: AllAfrica, EcoFinAgency, via Electrive; featured image by Asilia Africa.
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