{"id":1131,"date":"2011-11-16T02:32:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T02:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/tapping-into-electricity-investiment\/"},"modified":"2011-11-16T02:31:27","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T02:31:27","slug":"tapping-into-electricity-investiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/tapping-into-electricity-investiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Tapping into Electricity Investiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{Electricity generation business can be a highly capital-intensive enterprise, very risky, and the returns may not be felt for a long while. African entrepreneurs tend to avoid this venture.}} <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

However,Rwanda’s 60 year old Gregory Tayi (above) saw this as a great opportunity. Tayi holding a master’s degree in chemistry set up the first private mini hydro-electric power station at Mirunda in Rwanda with a generation capacity of 96 kW which is supplied to the national grid.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that his company, Repro generates around $10,000 per month.
\nHaving supplied medical equipment, vegetable products and chemicals for many years, he decided it was about time to start providing electricity.<\/p>\n

In his Interview with the BBC-African Dream series Tayi says due to the countrys energy demands like in most African nations,he realised that he could make a difference – and a profit – by putting up mini hydro-electric stations in some of its numerous rivers.<\/p>\n

“We went to the government. The government had a fund that would subsidise the people who do go into this business. So all these factors helped us to enter into energy”.<\/p>\n

“There was this subsidy but the bank also gave me the credit. They looked back at my history of business, at what I was doing before,” added Mr Tayi, now the proud general director of Renewable Energy Promotion (Repro).<\/p>\n

{{Starting from zero}}<\/p>\n

According to him, for even the smallest hydro-electric station in Rwanda, one would need an initial investment of around $500,000 (\u00a3312,000).<\/p>\n

But he says that having the capital is not the main point. He believes that it is much more important to be clear about where one wants to go.<\/p>\n

“When you start from zero, you learn what you wouldn’t have learned in school. And I think that’s the most important capital that one can get.”<\/p>\n

He said he did not have an easy start. When he was a student, his family could not even afford to help him with his school fees.<\/p>\n

He remembers that when he finished university, with a master’s degree in chemistry, he was “as broke as anybody”.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t count on anybody. As I didn’t get a job, I couldn’t even sustain myself,” he said.<\/p>\n

{{Forced into business}}<\/p>\n

Mr Tayi pointed out that for him becoming a businessman was not a choice.
\n“I was forced into it but, luckily, I was forced into business because I struggled for the first years but other years, you know, things came much much easier.”<\/p>\n

Repro opened in 2007 and its main power site, at Murunda, in Rwanda’s Western Province, started three years later. It currently generates around $10,000 per month.<\/p>\n

{{And how would he describe a good business person?}}<\/p>\n

“When people look at businessmen, they look at money, but I think money is not what makes the person,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A business, it’s working with the people. It’s making life easier for others. A good businessman is the one who looks at his neighbours, at his countrymen, at the world,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“It would be meaningless if I were rich and I’m surrounded by poor people. A good businessman is one who looks first on others before he looks after himself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Electricity generation business can be a highly capital-intensive enterprise, very risky, and the returns may not be felt for a long while. African entrepreneurs tend to avoid this venture.}} However,Rwanda’s 60 year old Gregory Tayi (above) saw this as a great opportunity. Tayi holding a master’s degree in chemistry set up the first private mini […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[75],"byline":[277],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-homenews","byline-igihe-com-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":277,"name":"IGIHE.com Reporter","slug":"igihe-com-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":277,"name":"IGIHE.com Reporter","slug":"igihe-com-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=1131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}