The three-day, long-awaited Busoga Yaiffe 2024 Busoga Olwekobaano and Energy Expo will take place at the Taxi Park Yard & Green Belt area in Kaliro Town, Kaliro district, between the 5th and 7th of December 2024.

This year’s theme is taking access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy to more places and people using strategic partnerships to generate socio-economic change and to ensure sustainable development in Eastern Uganda.

In this interview, Busoga Times’ editor Baz Waiswa sat down with Dr Charles Mbalyohere, the president of Busoga Yaiffe, the organization organizing the event, to talk about the Olwekobaano, the energy expo, and the renewable energy potential in Busoga.

Below are the excerpts from the interview conducted in Kaliro ahead of the anticipated event.

Please tell our readers what the Busoga Olwekobaano Energy Expo is all about and what people coming should expect at this year’s expo.

The Olwekobaano has been there for some time. There is an organization called Busoga Yaiffe that started the idea of having an event that brings us together in Busoga, those on the ground, but also in the Diaspora, to meet at least once a year or twice and discuss Busoga’s development.

The Olwekobaano has been held for a number of years on different themes. We’ve held events on investment, health, education, and other topics in Jinja, Iganga, and other places. So we’ve been trying to rotate this event. Now we are in Kaliro on the topic of energy.

It’s a way of sensitizing people about different things, forming partnerships, filling knowledge gaps based on the topic you are discussing, and together, exploring possibilities for solving problems, again, depending on the topic that you have.

This idea of the Olwekobaano, over the years, we’ve felt it’s a good thing to do, to bring people together and see how, as the region, as the people, we can go forward.

That is basically what the Olwekobaano is all about. Specifically, this Olwekobaano in Kaliro has been focusing on energy questions. We held Olwekobaano last year on the same topic of the transition to renewable energy for the first time, and like I said, we keep changing the themes.

We think that as the world is facing a major climate change crisis, as the weather is changing, we have to do something about how we use energy. It was a timely topic, even for us here in Busoga.

We thought we should follow up in the second year and consolidate what we did last year. It’s important for not only the region but also the country and the global community.

What should people coming to this year’s energy expo at the Olwekobaano expect?

We have three things happening.

First of all, we have a conference where we have invited various speakers from various organizations to come and talk about different aspects around energy. There are local people who we work with here in the region. So we’ve tried to mix it up.

Then we have, of course, the exhibition, where we have different companies and organizations demonstrating what they are doing in the area of renewable energy. We have partners we worked with last year coming again. We also have new partners.

Exhibitors will showcase various things on solar technology, biomass, clean cooking, and education. We have a technical institute joining us to introduce courses on renewable energy. Stakeholders will showcase and teach people what they are doing around renewable energy.

And then we have a third element, which for us is more of a Corporate Social Responsibility – a healthy camp. Over the years, this has been a success because our people are still struggling even at the basic level. The services at the health camp will be free, including consultations.

This time, we have partners like Rays of Hope, Hospice Jinja for cancer screening, especially for women, Musana Healthcare Services, World Vision, and the Kaliro District Health Office coming to support.

So, those are the three elements happening over the three days at the Lwekobaano.

What inspired you to start this expo, and what do the organizers intend to achieve?

This event is a foundation to sensitize people about this important transition that is happening: the transition to using renewable energy and slowly getting away from fossil fuels. Many people need to understand what this means.

So there’s a lot of explanation, especially to everyday people. And I think we all have a responsibility in our different capacities to support the transition. The Olwekobaano, for us, is the possibility we have to contribute to the transition.

We know that it can make a practical change if people start using, for example, solar pumps for irrigation. If it is affordable, and people can use solar pumps to irrigate their farms throughout the year, even in the dry season, that can make a difference to their livelihoods.

Not only will we be helping the environment, we will also be helping people economically. I think those are good reasons for us to be inspired to start something.

What can you say are the leading energy challenges in Busoga, and what solutions does the expo offer?

I think, of course, we are still, like many other areas, dependent on fossil fuels. This is not sustainable if you look at where the world is going. We need to start educating our people and sensitizing them about the need to change.

We also know that many of these new technologies are not yet affordable for many people, especially at the grassroots. That is a challenge, but things are starting to change. These things are becoming cheaper. There are finance models coming up to help people be able to purchase.

I think people still think that, for example, solar is only for charging phones or lighting, but there’s more to it. I gave the example of irrigation. You can use solar for drying farm produce like maize, groundnuts, and others. 

You can even have a small microprocessing plant at home to grind your products. You can make juice using solar. So there’s a lot that you can do that is of economic value. But people need to be sensitized. People need to see things demonstrated to them by our exhibitors.

In a region barely covered by electricity, fossil energy like firewood is widely used. What other alternative energy sources and technology will be on showcase at the expo?

The most affordable and accessible is, of course, solar, because we have a lot of sun. If there’s anything we have, it is the sun. If we can make these technologies available, and people can afford them, I think that can make a huge difference.

It is already making a difference as far as lighting is concerned. The other time I went deep into the village, I saw people using very small panels on their grass houses. People are starting to see that it’s less expensive.

There’s also biogas. We still have a lot of waste, like, for example, the market here. When people peel their things, they just throw away the peels, but you can use that to produce biogas on the farms. It’s not as popular as solar, but it can also be used potentially. 

We have clean cooking stoves that don’t use firewood or charcoal. If you have those becoming more common, then people don’t have to go for charcoal or firewood. People don’t have to cut trees, and this helps conserve the environment.

Here in Kaliro, I was talking to an expert who was saying that over 80% of trees have been cut in the last 10 years. That shows how dramatic things have happened, and if we don’t change our ways, I think we have a big problem. 

We can now think of how to grow more trees to recover what we have lost. 

How do these alternative energy sources and technologies help in conserving the environment and the ecosystem already constrained by the depletion of forests as people look for firewood?

I think they can play a very important role. I think the key problem is still that, like we said, things are still too expensive for the most common people.

If we can get prices down without damaging quality, that you can buy something and it can stay for some time, and people can afford it, I think that can help with energy poverty.

We still have a distance to go, but there are models that are coming up, for example, that you can pay in small installments. Over time, kerosene is more expensive and poses health challenges. If you use kerosene, the health of your children, even your own health, is affected.

So these are things that we need to sensitize people about. But sometimes it’s difficult to change behaviors. Some people think that that change is too expensive for them. You have to educate people about that perspective.

Renewable energy is being touted as the cleaner and environmentally friendly energy option. What’s Busoga’s renewable energy potential like?

From what I’ve gathered interacting with various people, the potential is high; people are starting to buy solar systems. Like I said, I went to a village, and I was impressed to see small panels.

I believe the potential is high, and in our communities, once people see that something is good, they are historically very good at taking it on. I’m very confident that the potential can be exploited here in Busoga, especially if it goes beyond just lighting and charging.

The cost of electricity has been looked at as a hindrance, failing the government to connect citizens to the main grid. How does renewable energy compare?

In the early years, renewable energy was too expensive for most people, but over the years it has become more affordable. That’s why you see more people buying solar home systems.

You can argue about quality, and that’s another thing we need to consider, but in terms of cost, it’s becoming more affordable. There’s still a percentage that is still struggling with even this low cost, but the products are going down.

I think the costs of these systems are now competitive with the national grid, if not less expensive. If I look ahead, I think these systems will be certainly less expensive than electricity. 

However, that doesn’t mean that hydroelectricity has no role to play because it is also a renewable energy source, though they use a bit of fossil fuel to run the turbines.