Friday(Photo/Courtesy)
The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Works and Transport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with M-Auto Electric Mobility, a green mobility company from Benin, Togo to deploy 140,000 electric motorcycles and 3000 charging & battery swapping stations countrywide.
Under the agreement, the green mobility company will also set up an assembly plant in Uganda and is expected to create over 9000 jobs. The Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Katumba Wamala signed the MoU on behalf of the Government of Uganda on Friday March 31st, 2023.
Boda-boda cyclists are expected to benefit from this venture, where they will be in position exchange their old gasoline bikes for new electric, clean energy bikes.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently during the National Address on December 31st, said that the government will provide free electric motorcycles to all riders, including boda-boda riders, to replace petrol-powered motorcycles. This swap will save motorcycle operators 50% of the cost.
Museveni said the government had entered an agreement with investors that will see all motorcycle riders get electric motorcycles at zero cost.
According to the current technology, electric bikes are 60% cheaper to operate than the gasoline ones because they don’t take fuel. Charging the motorbike takes a very small fraction. They don’t have a lot of serviceable parts
In June 2022 while officiating at the official launch of the Kampala Masaka e-mobility corridor in Mpigi town, the German government asked policymakers in Uganda to promote the current strategies which the government has put in place to encourage the community to adopt and use renewable energy as a measure to mitigate the challenges of climate change.
The country director for GIZ to Uganda James Macbeth Forbes said there is no way the country will address the challenges of climate change without implementing the policies.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala on Friday March 31st 2023, presided over a graduation ceremony at the East African Civil Aviation Academy where 57 students graduated in Aviation courses.
Among the graduates where 29 pilots, 14 aircraft maintenance engineers, 12 flight operations officers, & 2 Airline Transport Pilot License (Ground) officers from the academic years of 2019-22.
