The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved $84.22 million in loans and grants to electrify nearly 80,000 rural households in southern Rwanda.
The aim of this project is to advance the country’s goal of universal electrification and benefit small businesses and youths.
This project is part of the Rwanda Universal Energy Access Program (RUEAP), which seeks among other goals, to achieve universal access to electricity by 2024.
Rwanda’s power sector has grown over the past decade, with electricity accessible to more than half of Rwandans in their homes, according to World Bank’s Rwanda Economic Update: Lighting Rwanda.
While the country is on track for increasing access to electricity, the 2019 World Bank report noted that the cost of electricity supply was among the highest in the region and a constraint for the country’s economic and industrial development.
According to the AfDB, the funds comprise a loan of $36.77 million from the bank group’s African Development Fund and a $47.45 million ADF grant.
‘The Transmission System Reinforcement and Last Mile Connectivity project will provide first-time electricity connection to 77,470 households to the grid, entailing the construction of 595 km of medium voltage distribution lines and 1,620 km of low voltage distribution networks in six southern Rwanda districts’, the bank said in a statement.
‘The project will also see the upgrade, rehabilitation and extension of 1,720 km of low voltage network, and distribution of transformers in secondary cities with high load’.
It is expected, according to the statement, that the project will improve power supply reliability and stability across the country, expand electricity access and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by enabling access to clean energy.
The project is also expected to bolster education by extending students’ access to light for study, and benefit small and medium enterprises while enhancing job creation for youths.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: Paul Kagame
