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Is eCooking carbon financing reaching Uganda’s informal settlements?
eCooking awareness will help to overcome traditional perceptions, safety concerns, and trust issues.
Peter Mwesiga.
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Peter Mwesiga
Government, through the energy ministry, is taking a leading role in exploring how carbon finance can support Uganda’s eCooking. As such, related projects have already been approved, and others remain under review.
Beyond Uganda, similar momentum is emerging across Africa. Recent initiatives, including the ATEC-led e-cooking project launched in Malawi in 2025, through co-operation between the governments of Malawi and Switzerland. They are building momentum around digitally monitored electric cooking and verifiable carbon credits.
Uganda’s clean cooking targets are also ambitious. National policy frameworks aim to increase the share of clean energy used for cooking to around 50% by 2030, while cooking with electricity is projected to rise from about 1-2% today to 18% by 2040.
Carbon finance is expected to support this transition. Yet an important question remains: Is this financing also reaching residents of Uganda’s informal settlements?
According to Edwin Kwesiga, a clean energy expert, “carbon finance can help reduce appliance costs for households, support flexible financing models and create more stable revenues for companies serving vulnerable and underserved markets”.
Despite the opportunity, access to carbon finance for e-cooking in Uganda remains limited, especially for actors working in informal settlements.
“The Carbon credit registration process is frustrating, expensive, time-consuming and complicated, Aaron Leopold”, the chief executive officer at Energrow Ltd, says.
Uganda’s clean cooking targets are also ambitious. National policy frameworks aim to increase the share of clean energy used for cooking to around 50% by 2030, while cooking with electricity is projected to rise from about 1-2% today to 18% by 2040.
Carbon finance is expected to support this transition. Yet an important question remains: Is this financing also reaching residents of Uganda’s informal settlements?
According to Edwin Kwesiga, a clean energy expert, “carbon finance can help reduce appliance costs for households, support flexible financing models and create more stable revenues for companies serving vulnerable and underserved markets”.
Despite the opportunity, access to carbon finance for e-cooking in Uganda remains limited, especially for actors working in informal settlements.
“The Carbon credit registration process is frustrating, expensive, time-consuming and complicated, Aaron Leopold”, the chief executive officer at Energrow Ltd, says.
He explains that distributors operating in the same market and distributing the same appliance brands still must undertake separate and costly testing and carbon registration processes to participate. Different actors in this space highlight that carbon financing only becomes viable at annual sales ranges of 10,000- 50,000 appliance units, and the registration alone requires investments of over $100,000. These thresholds create a fundamental barrier to entry for actors operating in informal settlement markets. Within these informal settlements, the realities of electricity access, such as shared and landlord-controlled meters, poorly planned housing arrangements, irregular household incomes and low awareness levels, create additional barriers.
While using e-cooking appliances, such as electric pressure cookers has already proved cheaper than using charcoal, appliance upfront costs remain beyond reach for many households living on such irregular incomes.
Such financing is also required to improve awareness of eCooking and its benefits, while helping to overcome existing traditional perceptions, safety concerns, and trust issues.
Informal settlement communities are also still viewed as high-risk by both lenders and project financiers, creating a significant financing access gap for a large share of the population, particularly given that over 60% of Uganda’s urban population lives in such communities.
“Most residents in these communities have no bank accounts and are considered risky. Most banks consider projects in informal settlements not bankable,” explains one of the key actors.
Uganda cannot achieve an inclusive clean cooking transition if informal settlements remain excluded and sustained adoption is not prioritised beyond access.
Actors working within informal settlements argue that carbon-financed eCooking will require stronger public and concessional financing to reduce risks for both households and market actors.
This support can take different forms, including project aggregation, capacity development, risk guarantees, insurance and e-cooking hubs to help small-scale actors overcome the high costs and technical complexity of carbon credit systems.
Financing models must also support fair revenue-sharing arrangements across the value chain to the households themselves to incentivise sustained e-cooking adoption.
According to industry stakeholders, government can play an important role in strengthening Uganda’s emerging carbon fi nance ecosystem. Some say that the process can be made less risky where government acts as the buyer — as the broker — selling the credits to other national or corporate buyers.
Therefore, if done well, carbon finance could help unlock eCooking, reduce household energy costs, improve health outcomes, and expand opportunities in such communities already struggling with multiple social and economic challenges.
For informal settlements to fully participate, they cannot simply be treated as the last communities to reach; they must be treated as one of the central starting points.
The writer is a Managing Partner, Xantum Consulting Ltd
While using e-cooking appliances, such as electric pressure cookers has already proved cheaper than using charcoal, appliance upfront costs remain beyond reach for many households living on such irregular incomes.
Such financing is also required to improve awareness of eCooking and its benefits, while helping to overcome existing traditional perceptions, safety concerns, and trust issues.
Informal settlement communities are also still viewed as high-risk by both lenders and project financiers, creating a significant financing access gap for a large share of the population, particularly given that over 60% of Uganda’s urban population lives in such communities.
“Most residents in these communities have no bank accounts and are considered risky. Most banks consider projects in informal settlements not bankable,” explains one of the key actors.
Uganda cannot achieve an inclusive clean cooking transition if informal settlements remain excluded and sustained adoption is not prioritised beyond access.
Actors working within informal settlements argue that carbon-financed eCooking will require stronger public and concessional financing to reduce risks for both households and market actors.
This support can take different forms, including project aggregation, capacity development, risk guarantees, insurance and e-cooking hubs to help small-scale actors overcome the high costs and technical complexity of carbon credit systems.
Financing models must also support fair revenue-sharing arrangements across the value chain to the households themselves to incentivise sustained e-cooking adoption.
According to industry stakeholders, government can play an important role in strengthening Uganda’s emerging carbon fi nance ecosystem. Some say that the process can be made less risky where government acts as the buyer — as the broker — selling the credits to other national or corporate buyers.
Therefore, if done well, carbon finance could help unlock eCooking, reduce household energy costs, improve health outcomes, and expand opportunities in such communities already struggling with multiple social and economic challenges.
For informal settlements to fully participate, they cannot simply be treated as the last communities to reach; they must be treated as one of the central starting points.
The writer is a Managing Partner, Xantum Consulting Ltd