Ugandan firm to set up hydrogen fertiliser plant at Karuma Dam

A Ugandan company has been granted permission by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to build a hydrogen plant at Karuma power dam, with a view to manufacturing agriculture fertilisers.

H₂ Agro Uganda Limited and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will lead to the manufacture of ammonia fertilizers in Uganda. Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa and Edwin Kikonyogo director H2 Agro signed the MoU.

Nankabirwa welcomed the project saying apart from powering energy transition, Uganda is in dire need of a fertilizer industry.

“This hydrogen chance must be utilized because we have hydro power and salts, you know very well that if you are planning to do hydrogen with hydro power it will be easier. What the project is intending to do is a good thing, green hydrogen is the new thing we have to walk the talk of climate change and clean energy,” she said.

Ms Nankabirwa said the country’s soils are getting depleted of their natural fertility and yet access to fertilizer, of about 2 percent of the required application, is too low.

“We have been bragging about our fertile soils even when in our national anthem we brag about it but soil has life, they get depleted if you don’t add fertilizers, the fertile soils we have grown up bragging about will die,” she added.

“We have been bragging about our fertile soils even when in our national anthem we brag about it but soil has life, they get depleted if you don’t add fertilizers, the fertile soils we have grown up bragging about will die,”

Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa

Kikonyogo, CEO of H₂ Agro says in the first year of the MOU, feasibility studies will be done to reveal project costs, output levels and market details, and land acquisition, among others.

“’The president has been talking about fertilisers, industrialization and agricultural value addition. You cannot make a good product for consumers with agricultural value addition if your inputs are substandard,” he said.

According to Kikonyogo, the abundance of water and hydropower give Uganda a comparative advantage to grow the hydrogen industry. 

The company will be funded by Climate Fund Managers BV, a Netherlands-based climate fund company.

Climate Fund Managers B.V. operates as a fund manager, specializing in implementing platforms for climate mitigation and adaptation financing across sectors such as energy, water, landscapes, oceans, and sustainable cities.