Uganda’s energy sector commits to raising 50,000 female engineers

Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | In a powerful gathering that blended the gravity of a policy summit with the warmth of a celebration, Uganda’s energy sector drew a line in the sand on on April 15 in Kampala.

At the 2026 Women in Energy Forum in Lugogo, leaders moved beyond rhetoric, unveiling an aggressive roadmap to dismantle the barriers keeping millions of girls out of the science classroom and off the engineering floor.

The message from the country’s top energy officials was clear: the nation’s industrial future depends on the girl child learning to love physics.

As the sun set over the UMA Multi-Purpose Hall, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu, issued a stark challenge to the young women in attendance.

“Tonight is not merely a celebration. It is a declaration,” she said. “The future of Uganda’s energy sector must include women not just as participants, but as engineers, scientists, innovators, and leaders.”

The Minister emphasized that the clean energy transition is a technical battle, one that cannot be won if the country continues to sideline its female population.

Citing the government’s vision for industrial transformation, she noted that classrooms must become the front line of economic change, warning that good intentions will not run the power plants of tomorrow.

“If you fear mathematics, confront it,” she urged the students, calling for a surge in girls pursuing physics and mathematics to meet the demands of the national grid.

This urgency is backed by stark statistical realities. While Uganda has made strides in electrification—recently reaching a 60% access rate—the talent pipeline for the sector remains dangerously skewed.

Data from the 2025 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations reveals a troubling gender chasm in the sciences. Although female candidates performed well in the sciences where they were present, with 57.4% achieving principal passes in physics compared to 55.2% of their male counterparts, the sheer volume of male students in these fields dwarfs female participation.

The examination board reported that 45,130 males sat for mathematics compared to just 25,002 females, while the gap in physics was even more dramatic, with 16,613 male candidates versus only 4,689 females.

This disparity in the classroom translates directly to a deficit in the control room, where women currently lead less than 20% of renewable energy businesses in the region.

To bridge this gap, the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) announced that its grassroots strategy is already bearing fruit.

ERA Chief Executive Officer Ziria Tibalwa Waako revealed that the Women in Energy Initiative, conceived just eight years ago as a “bold idea,” has since reached over 50,000 students across 78 secondary schools nationwide.

“What began as a bold idea has since grown into a transformative platform,” Waako stated, highlighting how the program has begun to reshape long-held perceptions about gender roles in the industry by exposing girls to real-life success stories and mentorship opportunities .

However, she cautioned that inclusivity is not optional but essential for long-term sustainability, acknowledging that despite the progress, structural barriers persist.

The commitment extends beyond mentorship and into the pocketbook. Board Chairperson Grania Rosette Rubomboras, speaking from personal experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, announced that ERA continues to allocate over Shs2billion annually to a Graduate Training Programme.

“Too many women remain underrepresented. We need more women in engineering departments, more in system operations, more in grid management, and in energy research,” Rubomboras asserted, calling for deliberate recruitment of technically competent women.

This financial muscle is designed to ensure that the girls currently being mentored have a clear path from the classroom to a career, shifting the focus from symbolic representation to technical capability.

As the evening concluded, the Minister officially launched the 3rd Edition of the Women in Energy Magazine. The consensus among the stakeholders was that while the progress is measurable, the journey is far from complete.

With the nation aiming to scale generation to over 15,000 Megawatts by 2030, the demand for skilled engineers has never been higher.

For the 50,000 girls who have been reached by the initiative, the message was one of empowerment and duty: they are no longer just consumers of electricity, but the architects of the nation’s power future.