Rwanda: Minister Calls for More Investors in Energy
Posted on : Thursday , 10th November 2016
The Minister of Infrastructure, James Musoni, has said that while the energy sector has played a key role to the country in achieving an average GDP growth of 8% for the last decade, considerable investment is still required in the sector for the country to achieve its economic target of 11.5% annual growth by 2020.
The Minister made the remarks on Tuesday while opening the third edition of the iPAD Rwanda Energy Infrastructure Forum in Kigali.
"To meet our growth target, partnerships between the private and public sectors and financial institutions is paramount," Musoni said, adding that the government has created an enabling business environment and facilitated the private sector to tap in these opportunities.
The CEO of the Rwanda Development Board, Francis Gatare, said the country has many investment opportunities and is amongst the region's fastest growing economies, noting that it has been frequently on top rankings for the best place to do business and to invest in Africa.
Rwanda has set target to achieve 70% of the electricity access rate in 2018 with installed capacity of 563 MW, from the current 27% access with 190 MW generation capacity.
Musoni said that to bridge this gap, a number of projects are being implemented including the regional hydropower station Rusizi III with backing from the African Development Bank (AfDB), and which involves Burundi, the DR Congo and Rwanda. Its expected generation capacity is 147 MW to be shared equally amongst the participating countries.
Officials say such projects and the recently inaugurated 26 MW KivuWatt gas power plant, with a second phase expected to reach 75 MW, give them confidence that the country's energy targets can be reached.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is faced with issues of low access to electricity, demand and supply imbalances, lack of capacity to develop power generation margins and regional infrastructure integration for power to trade; this is compromising industrialization and economic development," Musoni observed.
"Regional power and infrastructure development together with harmonization of regulatory frameworks are key requirements to address regional electricity challenges, as well as lower tariffs. Like Sub-Sahara countries Rwanda is not exempted from these challenges," he added.
The 2-day forum which ends on Wednesday is held under the theme: 'Rwanda's Strategic Energy Outlook.' It has attracted about 200 participants including project developers, financial organizations and multilateral investors, construction and planning companies as well as technology providers from Rwanda and abroad.
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