East African Gazette
Kampala
Eight groundbreaking climate initiatives have been chosen from a pool of 160 applicants to join the Climate Finance Accelerator Uganda (CFA).
“We are so excited to welcome our first eight projects to CFA Uganda who were selected from over 160 applications! It was great to meet you last week – we’re really looking forward to working with you. The hard work has already begun with the first capacity building session delivered by our gender equality and social inclusion expert Vidya Naidu this morning,” shared CFA on their @LinkedIn profile.
These projects span across the waste, transportation, energy, and agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sectors, holding immense potential to benefit communities throughout Uganda.
Selected projects
Clean Energy partnership for Africa (CEPA) Limited – driving a market shift from conventional to sustainable fuel sources by providing affordable and eco-friendly bioenergy products, such as un-carbonized pellets and matching stoves, bioethanol, and bio-based power.
Kyamuhunga Tea Company Limited – modernising tea processing by integrating renewable energy, and incorporating sustainability initiatives. This aims to increase operational efficiency, reduce environmental impact, empower local farmers and introduce data-driven decision making.
NLS Waste Services – waste to energy facility. The plant will have the capacity to incinerate around 1,300 tonnes of waste generated in the Kampala area each day to produce 115 MW of thermal power.
Protone Energies Limited – solar energy battery refurbishment aimed at doubling the lifetime of a battery at 38% of the cost of a new one. Services include battery refurbishment, re-utilising decommissioned batteries and scheduling maintenance to extend their lifespan.
Silver Fleet Limited – an electric vehicle taxi fleet solution to transition a taxi company, which clients can access via an online platform and mobile app.
Kwanza Infrastructure Group – Hydroelectric power projects on the Sisi, Simu and Ngenge rivers in Eastern Uganda using run-of-river technology. The project of capacity 30.3 MW will generate 26,543 mwh per year sufficient to power 22,120 households with clean power and increase supply to support the energy transition.
Umeme Ltd – promoting the adoption of cooking with electricity in Uganda by scaling up the existing pilot at Umeme Ltd and its partners from 1,500 to 50,000 electric pressure cookers to support the government’s energy agenda. To enable customers to purchase a quality electric pressure cooker at any Umeme office/branch or via the Umeme app or website.
Zembo – motorcycle and battery charging services targeting the ‘boda boda’ (motorcycle taxi) industry in Uganda.
The projects come from the waste, transport, energy and agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU) sectors and have the potential to benefit communities across Uganda.
Each business will receive one-to-one support and advice from financial and technical experts to strengthen their projects and increase their chances of attracting investment.
This includes advice on financial models, how to prepare pitch materials and how to enhance the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) aspects of projects.
Following the capacity building and mentoring sessions, the projects will meet with international, UK and Uganda investors and financial institutions at a final event to be held in Kampala in March 2024.
This event allows the projects to connect with investors and catalyse opportunities.
What is CFA?
CFA is a £12 million four-year technical assistance program funded by the UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
It has been running for two years and currently operates in ten countries (Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Pakistan, South Africa, Türkiye, Uganda, and Viet Nam).
It has provided capacity building support for over 135 innovative low carbon projects with a total value of over US $2.9 billion to help them. Selected from pipelines worth over US $64 billion, CFA has helped these projects develop attractive propositions for investment and hosted forums with interested investors in each country and in the City of London.
So far 19 projects have already been successful in accessing financing of over US $286 million