By Gad Masereka

For years, the electric cooking sector in Uganda has faced a twin bottleneck: the equipment is expensive to import, and the businesses that sell it lack the working capital to stock enough to meet demand. On Thursday, February 5, 2026, a new financial mechanism was launched to dismantle that constraint, as Equity Bank Uganda, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and the United Kingdom’s development funding arm, UKAID, formally unveiled the Modern Energy Cooking Services Trust Fund at a stakeholder session held at Four Points by Sheraton Kampala Hotel.

The Fund is financed by the British High Commission through UKAID under the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and will be managed by Equity Bank Uganda as the implementing financial partner. Its purpose is to extend working capital and bridge financing to companies operating in Uganda’s electric cooking supply chain, enabling them to import appliances, build inventory and make clean cooking technologies accessible at scale to households, small businesses, institutions and cooperatives across the country. Borrowers can access financing ranging from 10 million shillings to over 500 million shillings.

Catherine Psomgen, Equity Bank Uganda’s Director for Public Sector and Social Investments, framed the initiative as a response to a misunderstanding that has slowed electric cooking adoption. “Today we have launched e-cooking financing to support Ugandan businesses to operate more efficiently and competitively. We recognise that electricity costs are a concern, but affordability is about the total cost of cooking, not electricity alone,” she said. She described the Fund as a demonstration of how financial institutions can work alongside government and development partners to create sustainable change at scale.

The Minister of State for Energy, Okaasai Opolot, was direct about the problem the Fund addresses. Scarcity of available electric cooking appliances in the local market and the high cost of importing them have kept the technology out of reach for most Ugandan households, regardless of interest in adopting it. “The main challenges that have been experienced while implementing eCooking in Uganda are unavailability of the eCooking technology and funding to facilitate importation of the eCooking appliances,” he said. “This makes the launching of the Trust Fund timely, as it provides solutions by making funding available for the suppliers.”

Lydia Nandawula, from UKAID’s Climate and Energy Policy office, described the Fund as one component of a longer-term UK commitment to Uganda’s clean cooking transition, one that is understood not solely as a climate priority but as a development, health, gender and economic opportunity. She pointed specifically to short-term working capital as the gap that has consistently prevented viable electric cooking businesses from growing, stocking products and meeting consumer demand in a commercially sustainable way.

The policy backdrop for the launch reflects years of deliberate groundwork. In 2021, Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority introduced a dedicated cooking electricity tariff to encourage uptake. Two years later, the National eCooking Strategy outlined measures for supply chain development, grid expansion and public awareness. At the COP28 climate conference, Uganda committed to achieving 18 percent electric cooking adoption by 2030. The Trust Fund is intended to accelerate progress toward that target by removing the supply-side financing gap that has consistently limited how many businesses can enter and sustain operations in the sector.

Beyond economic outcomes, the initiative carries significant implications for public health and the environment. The majority of Ugandan households still cook with charcoal or firewood, fuels whose smoke contributes to respiratory illness and whose production accelerates deforestation. By enabling more businesses to supply affordable electric alternatives, the Fund creates a pathway toward cleaner kitchens and reduced pressure on Uganda’s forests, benefits that reach far beyond the balance sheets of the companies it finances.