Household Lighting Expenditure, Expenditure Efficiency and Energy-Efficient Appliance Adoption in Uganda

This study examines household lighting expenditure, lighting-energy efficiency and the adoption of energy-efficient appliances in Uganda. Using the 2025 survey data on 410 households, we estimate a stochastic cost frontier for monthly expenditure on all lighting sources and linear probability, logit and probit models of appliance adoption. Our results show that lighting expenditure rises with the number of rooms, hours of electricity availability, mobile payment use and energy-efficiency awareness. However, it is associated with the household head’s age, rural residence, renting, and monthly income above UGX 1,000,000 (US$300). Moreover, the mean efficiency score is 0.59, so the minimum expenditure predicted for comparable households averages 59% of observed expenditure, while regional means range from 0.55 in Eastern to 0.72 in Toro. Furthermore, awareness and training raise the predicted probability of adoption by 39.6 and 23.3 percentage points, respectively, whereas rural residence lowers it by 18.0 percentage points. Income, secondary education, age, household size and mobile money ownership also raise adoption. Energy policy in Uganda should therefore pair reliable electricity supply with practical energy efficiency trainings, quality-assured efficient products and payment arrangements that spread upfront costs.