PROFILE: 15 years in the energy ministry; two MScs- in Advanced Chemical Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering, Uganda couldn’t have gotten a better PS for the energy ministry

Ms. Irene P. Batebe, the new Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) is a former Commissioner/Midstream in the Directorate of Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.

The ministry has a mandate to establish, promote the development, strategically manage and safeguard the rational and sustainable exploitation and utilization of energy and mineral resources for the social and economic development of Uganda.

Pursuant to this mandate, the ministry, is responsible for providing policy guidance in the development and exploitation of the Energy, Mineral, Oil and Gas resources of the of the country. It is also charged with creating an enabling environment to attract investment in the development, provision and utilisation of energy and mineral resources.

It also inspects, regulates, monitors, and evaluates activities of private companies in the energy and mineral sectors to ensure that resources are developed, exploited and used on a rational and sustainable basis.

The permanent secretary is the top civil servant in a ministry and as the accounting officer, their prime responsibility is supervising, coordinating, monitoring, and controlling all the activities of the ministry amongst many other roles. 

Ms Batebe’s appointment is just in time, as Uganda enters an advance phase of developing her oil and gas resource.

She has worked in the Ministry for fifteen (15) years starting off in the Energy Resources Department as a Chemical Engineer under the Energy for Rural Transformation, a World Bank Project.

She has been handling the planning and development of pipelines, the oil refinery and storage facilities. She has led negotiation teams for key agreements in the oil and gas sector.

Ms. Batebe was a member of the Inaugural Board of Directors of the Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC). where she is currently serving her second term. She also chairs the Board of Directors of the Uganda Refinery Holding Company Limited, a subsidiary of UNOC.

Ms. Batebe possesses a BSc in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Dar es Salam (Tanzania), a MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering majoring in Refinery Design & Operations from the University of Manchester (UK) and a MSc in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, (Sweden).