In Nansana, a bustling suburb of Kampala, Uganda, Gertrude Arineitwe has been making a popular drink called bushera for seven years. Bushera, which is made from sorghum flour and hot water, is a favorite among people from western Uganda. However, Arineitwe’s business has encountered a major problem recently—she can no longer afford the charcoal required to make her daily batches.
Every morning, Arineitwe would buy two spadesful of charcoal for 4,000 Ugandan shillings (about 1 U.S. dollar). This amount was just enough to make the 60 liters of bushera she sells to her regular customers. But now, that same amount of money buys only half the charcoal it used to, thanks to a government ban on charcoal production in northern Uganda, the country’s main source of the fuel.
The ban, introduced in June 2023 by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, aims to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions. While the intentions are noble, the consequences have been severe for small business owners like Arineitwe. With charcoal prices doubling, she has had to cut back on her bushera production and is worried about the future of her business.
“I’m really concerned about what will happen next,” Arineitwe says. “I can’t raise my prices because my customers have already told me they’ll stop buying if I do. But I can’t afford to keep making bushera with these charcoal prices.”
The Ugandan government has been encouraging people to switch to cleaner cooking methods for years. In 2020, they removed taxes on cooking gas, and in 2021, they offered bulk electricity rates to make it cheaper for people to use electric stoves. They even started distributing gas cylinders in some areas near Kampala. Despite these efforts, around 94% of Ugandan households still rely on charcoal and firewood for cooking, which are known as biomass fuels.
The problem is that alternative cooking methods are too expensive for many Ugandans. Arineitwe, for instance, has access to electricity but says it would cost her more than 50,000 shillings (about 13 dollars) per day to boil just one-third of the water she needs for her bushera. Before the price hikes, she was making a small profit of around 30,000 shillings (about 7 dollars) a week, but now those profits would be completely wiped out by the cost of electricity.
Electric pressure cookers are an option, but they are too expensive for Arineitwe and too small to meet her needs. Even if she could afford one, it wouldn’t be large enough to make the quantities of bushera her customers want.
As a result, Arineitwe now only makes bushera on special request, usually for events, and asks her customers to provide the firewood and flour needed to make the drink. This change has significantly reduced her income and left her uncertain about the future.
The government has a goal to move the entire country away from using charcoal and firewood for cooking by 2030. However, the transition is proving to be difficult for many Ugandans who can’t afford to switch to cleaner energy sources. The high costs and unfamiliar cooking methods are major barriers, especially for small business owners like Arineitwe who rely on traditional fuels to keep their businesses running.
The charcoal ban may be a step toward a more sustainable future, but for now, it’s creating serious challenges for those who depend on it for their livelihoods. With prices rising and no affordable alternatives in sight, people like Arineitwe are left in a tough position, struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing economy.
Source: Newsday
