Energy Minister apologizes to the public over escalating fuel prices

 By Sadiq Bamwita

The Minister for Energy and Mineral Development has apologized to the general public for failure to control escalating prices of fuel in a shortest time possible and attributed the spike in fuel prices to backlog of fuel trucks at the boarder point. 

According to Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa, government is moving on through Uganda Revenue Authority to solve the border impasse.

Adressing the media in Entebbe at the Directorate of Geological surveys and mines, Nankabirwa Sentamu said government is working around the clock to reduce the fuel prices every single day.

“We have asked the Kenyan side to speed up clearance of fuel truck drivers to end the prevailing problem of scarcity of fuel and it’s rise in prices,”Nankabirwa said.

She said the spiking prices of fuel at various fuel stations has been caused by backlog of fuel trucks at the boarder point due to mandatory COVID-19 testing.

“In fact we need to create a route to reduce the congestion at the border point,” she suggested.

Minister Nankabirwa noted that Government has asked Kenyan authority to  speed up the scanning process of fuel truck drivers.

Minister Nankabirwa said the Uganda National Oil Cooperation needs money to purchase fuel and that government is working around the clock to scale down worrying fuel prices.

Hon. Nankabirwa explained that currently, Uganda consumes 6m litrer of fuel price and that the current fuel reserves in Jinja can’t sustain the country for long.

“The Jinja fuel storage reserves is just 30m liters and we should not focus on it because apparently the number of vehicles is high.  We need money to create huge tanks which can sustain the country for 10 days,” she said.