Image: Rwanda eye
Rwanda signs a $50 million Scaling-Up Energy Renewable Program (SREP) financing agreement with World Bank recently.
Present at the signing of the agreement was the Rwanda’s Minister of Finance and Economic Panning, Claver Gatete and World Bank Country Manager for Rwanda, Yasser El Gammal. The partnership is aimed at helping Rwanda increase its availability of electricity and to allow the participation of the private-sector in renewable electrification using the off-grid system.
“The objective is to increase electricity access in Rwanda through off-grid technologies and facilitate private-sector participation in renewable off-grid electrification,” The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Claver Gatete said.
In view of this, the Rural Electrification Strategy, the Rwanda Renewable Energy fund Project (REFP) plans to remove all constraints that are faced by households and private companies in the off-grid market by directing the private sector investment into the off-grid renewable energy access. This will also increase the number of consumers of the renewable energy. Therefore, REFP plans to make 445,500 new off-grid connections available to serve up to 1.8 million people and this will reduce the use of dangerous fossil fuels like diesel, kerosene, and dry cell batteries among the consumers.
