Pauline Irene Batebe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Mineral DevelopmentBy Prisca WanyenyaThe Ministry of Energy has admitted that there are about 3600 petrol stations operating in Uganda without licenses, although many of them are being forced to apply for licenses given the new policy at Uganda National Oil Company that bars supply of fuel products to unlicensed companies.The admission was made Pauline Irene Batebe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development on 30th July 2026, during the consideration of the December 2025 Auditor General’s report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.She explained, “We have had improvement in the licences that we have issued, we are now at 20%. We have about 1,828 Petrol stations that are licenced and we have 3,600 that are unlicensed, so these unlicensed Petrol stations, we have, we issue permits at different levels. So many of these Petrol stations, go to the local governments, get clearances and set up, so by the time we go, they are already set up and they are not licenced. So that is the enforcement that we are doing.”Her remarks were in response to a concern raised by Moses Kahima Mugabe (Ruhaama East) who raised concerns over the Ministry’s remarks that efforts are being made to improve licensing of fuel stations, yet many are still operating illegally.He noted, “It is indicated in your report that there are many petrol stations which are not there exist. And even in the new query, they continue to exist. Even by our knowledge, there are so many petrol stations that continue to exist without line services, without permits and we can see you are constrained in terms of funding and the other area, you have generated revenue for your operations. Why do you continue to operate, to underperform? There are some external factors that can hinder your operations, where it is your internal weakness? Why do you continue to operate without performing your designated duties to collect these revenues and give permits to these petrol stations that are scattered everywhere?”The Ministry of Energy acknowledged the challenge but informed the Committee that it has since made improvements and the licensing has since risen to 50%.“Now we have 50% licenced and we continue to work to ensure we have many of these cleared. But critically through what I indicated, the Uganda National Oil Company (dealing in bulk trading business) does not supply petroleum products to unlicensed Petrol stations. So, that has driven many of these stations to run to the ministry to get licenced. Because if they are not licenced, they don’t access petroleum products through UNOC. Many of them have been appealing and they have gone everywhere, but we have said UNOC cannot issue product to unlicensed Petrol stations,” Batebe said.“So, with that inherent drive, we expect that this number is going to go up tremendously and indeed, we have seen an increase in applications for these licences. So that was a good business decision that is driving these unlicensed Petrol stations. Some of them at some point had no product because of that, we will see tremendous improvement driven by the UNOC bulk trading business,” she added.The questioning on the unlicensed fuel station followed a query raised by the Auditor General. Edward Akol, who noted that although the Petroleum Supply Act CAP.163 requires operators to obtain a petroleum construction permit and a petroleum operating license before carrying out any major constructions and modification of an installation or facility of the supply chain and performing petroleum supply operations respectively, four enforcement and monitoring reports revealed that 245 petroleum facilities did not have operating licenses.The Auditor General added that three facilities including; Target Maya F/S, Oil Gen F/S and Oil Well appendix 21 did not have storage and wholesale licenses for the Bulk Dispensing Units, while 6 stations had expired licenses, while 29 petroleum outlets were found to have been set up without approved Petroleum Construction Permits.The Auditor General noted that operating a station without a construction permit and operating license contravenes the law and may lead to loss of Government revenue. The post 3,600 Fuel Stations in Uganda Operating Without Licenses as UNOC Enforces New Supply Rules appeared first on Business Focus.