The urban-rural divide remains wide: urban access stood at roughly 80% in 2025, compared with about 43% in rural areas, where SHS provide close to a third of connections. Uganda’s Energy Compact targets 85% access by 2030, including around 2,712 mini-grids and 6 million cumulative standalone solar systems. Off-grid solar sales rose from about 280,000 units in 2020 to nearly 707,000 in 2025, an increase linked to results-based financing (RBF).

As access grows, attention is turning to the productive use of renewable energy (PURE): energy use that raises productivity, income or employment. In Uganda, PURE is used mainly for water pumping and irrigation, agro-processing, and cooling and storage, linking energy directly to agricultural livelihoods. To update the evidence on the supply side, the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA), with support from GOGLA and funding from the IKEA Foundation, surveyed 42 PURE companies between Q4 2024 and Q3 2025.

The findings point to a nascent but expanding market. Most surveyed companies are large, with 55% reporting annual turnover above UGX 360 million, but they are concentrated in the Central Region and distribution remains fragmented. Solar water pumps are the most widely adopted PURE technology, with surveyed companies reporting average sales of almost 4,000 units a year in 2021 to 2023. Cold storage, milling and drying equipment still account for a small share of sales despite their potential to reduce post-harvest losses. Financing is the biggest bottleneck. Cash dominates, loans are underused, and working capital constraints limit companies’ growth and their ability to absorb RBF support. Stronger finance, greater awareness of the return on investment, and better alignment of energy and agriculture policies can position PURE as a driver of rural economic transformation and climate resilience.