The mandate of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) is "To establish, promote the development, strategically manage and safeguard the rational and sustainable exploitation and utilization of energy and mineral resources for social and economic development".

Roles and Functions
The roles and main functions of the Ministry are as follows: -

1. To provide policy guidance in the development and exploitation of the energy and mineral resources.
   
2. To create an enabling environment in order to attract investment in the development, provision and utilisation of energy and mineral resources.
   
3. To acquire, process and interpret technical data in order to establish the energy and mineral resource potential of the country.
   
4. To inspect, regulate, monitor and evaluate activities of private companies in energy and mineral sectors so that the resources are developed, exploited and used on a rational and sustainable basis.

Strategic objectives for the Medium Term

Goals
In order to contribute effectively to poverty reduction, the Sector’s policy goals are:

1. To meet the Energy needs of Uganda’s population for social and economic development in an environmentally sustainable manner;
   
2. to use the county’s oil and gas resources to contribute to early achievement of poverty eradication and create lasting value to society; and
   
3. to develop the Mineral sector for it to contribute significantly to sustainable national economic and social growth;

Main Priorities

In the medium term, the key priorities of the Ministry are:   

1. to increase electricity generation capacity and development of the transmission network;
   
2. to increase access to modern energy services through rural electrification and renewable energy development;
   
3. to promote and monitor petroleum exploration and development in order to achieve local production; and
   
4. to promote mineral investment through the acquisition of geoscientific data and capacity building.

Other important areas are:

1. to promote the efficient utilisation of energy resources and reduction in power losses;
   
2. to streamline petroleum supply and distribution;
   
3. to inspect and regulate mining activities; and
   
4. to monitor geotectonic disturbances and radioactive emissions.

Major Strategies

To achieve the above priorities, the following major strategies have been adopted:-

1. To review and put in place modern policies and legislation that offer a conducive business environment.
   
2. Increase the energy mix in power generation, promote and co-invest in the development of new power generation and transmission projects.
   
3. To acquire and provide necessary information and data to attract and facilitate private sector participation and capital inflow.
   
4. Promote and / or implement rural electrification through grid extension, development of decentralised power supply systems and use of renewable energy resources.
   
5. Promote and monitor petroleum exploration, development and production by the private sector for local consumption and export.
   
6. Promote and monitor mineral exploration, development, production and value addition by the private sector for local consumption and export.
   
7. To carry out specialized and general training of manpower and strengthening capacity of the institutions responsible for managing and safeguarding the energy and mineral resources.
   
8. Carry out energy audits and consumer awareness campaigns for energy efficiency.
   
9. Establish standards and promote product quality, industrial safety, environmental protection and code of practice in petroleum supply operations.
   
10. Promote more efficient modes of transportation, in order to maintain security of petroleum products supply and curb smuggling.
    
11. Monitoring and acquisition of seismic data and radioactive emissions.