64% of the loan will be used to increase household on-grid connections, 28% to improve power supply, 4% for off-grid solutions and 3% for capacity building.
Speaking after the signing of the agreement, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana said that the loan was given to Rwanda under the second phase of Scale up Electricity Access Program (SEAP II) that will help Rwanda achieve its National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) goal of providing sustainable, affordable and reliable electricity services and achieve universal electricity access by 2024.
He said the loan “will positively impact our economic growth and promote our private sector-led job creating growth and private businesses, particularly for the youth and reduce poverty adding that “this is a crucial and huge sum of money.”
The African Development Bank Country Manager to Rwanda, Martha Phiri said that the program that the AfDB financed today is using the Results Based Financing instrument aimed at fast tracking the energy supply in Africa and ‘due to its results culture, Rwanda is the first country on the continent to pilot this instrument for the Bank.’’
Martha Phiri said that the Bank’s energy portfolio will increase from Euro 158.96 million to Euro 388.74 million, supporting eight operations, three of which are being implemented jointly with neighboring states.
She explained that the loan aims at enabling attaining the AfDB’s desire to march Rwanda’s ambitions to achieve national economic transformation where all households, schools, health centers and other productive houses will have full access to electricity in 2024.
She also said the Bank to address and end frequent power outages in Rwanda.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Energy Group (REG), Ron Weiss said that the power outages experienced by Rwandans when it rains and which raised multiple complaints by the population on social media “will be a different situation two years from now”.
Currently, 46% of the Rwandan households are connected to both on-grid and off-grid electricity.
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