Kigali, 23 January, 2020: The Government of Rwanda represented by Minister of Infrastructure Claver GATETE, celebrated one millionth on-grid connections, as part of Government’ efforts to ensure 100% access to electricity by 2024.

Speakers at the function highlighted the vital role that electricity plays in accelerating economic development through improving health and living standards.

Minister of Infrastructure recalled that energy and particularly access to electricity is Government’s key priority and the electricity remains an essential driver of modern technology and socio-economic development.

“Energy and particularly access to electricity is Government’s key priority since electricity is an essential driver of modern technology and socio-economic development (industrial processing activities that contribute to economic value-added products and job creation)”, he mentioned.

Minister Gatete said that significant investments have been made and progress registered in increasing households accessing to electricity and the Government target achieve Universal access by the year 2024.

“Access to electricity has increased from less than 1% in 1994 to 9% and 52% today, including with 38% connected to the national grid while 14% are using off-grid solutions including standalone solar home systems and mini-grids”, he said.

From the years 1937 when REGIDESO started in Rwanda and 1957 when the first ever power plant was built in Rwanda up to the years 2000, access to electricity was being considered as a rare privilege to dwellers of big cities, with only 46,000 households with access to electricity.

In 2009 a special program to roll out access to electricity (EARP) especially in rural areas was established to increase the access rate in the Rwandan community. The number of household connected to the grid increased from 6% to 492,641 in 2014 and to over 1 million today thanks to the support from the various development partners.

Minister of Infrastructure said that the government of Rwanda is committed to meet the universal electricity access by 2024 and mobilize related funds to implement the target. “The installed capacity increased from 97MW in 2010 to currently 225MW with more than 300MW expected to be on grid by 2024”, he noted.

To achieve the Universal access by the year 2024, off-grid solutions, including solar home systems (SHS), will play a key role. Off-grid technologies and commercial structures have developed significantly in recent years and now present a viable alternative to grid connections.

The Rwanda Energy Group’s One Millionth customer is Mrs. Agnes Mukankuranga, a resident of Mwulire Sector, Rwamagana District.

She was awarded with 183 kilowatts, an equivalent of Rwf 100,000.

Mrs. Mukankuranga said “I am very thankful to REG for transforming my life. The electricity enabled a city lifestyle in my family”.

Looking at the projection of increase of the number of households in Rwanda, 3.8 million households will have access to electricity by 2024. This means that a total of 2.4 million households will be connected in the coming 5 years including 1 million connected to the grid and 1.4 million provided with off-grid solutions.