Extra financing for energy projects have been approved by Rwanda. The cabinet did this with an objective to close the gaps in power generation.
It got approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame. He approved the loans and grants worth over $51 million to fund three major renewable energy projects.
Before the end of next year the country targets to increase to 563MW of electricity. It also plans to connect 70% of Rwanda’s households to electricity. Current the generation capacity in the country is 208MW.
A new $50 million deal was struck by The Finance Ministry and World Bank in July. This helped to fund more Renewable Energy project as part of increasing access to electricity in rural areas.
The new deal will see the electrification of 1.5 million Rwandan homes before the end of 2018.
The country has a target to fund projects to increase electricity access through off-grid technologies. These off-grid technologies facilitate private sector participation in renewable off-grid electrification. Rwanda is a recipient of World Bank’s International Development Association(IDA) credit worth $27.5 million.
The Renewable Energy Fund Project (REFP) will provide 445,500 new off-grid connections as part of the Rural Electrification Strategy introduced last year. By the end of 2018 the off-grid connections are giving about 1.8 million homes access to off-grid electricity.
A 21.4 million grant for Rwanda Renewable Energy Fund Project was also approved. Alongside an $87.6million ‘Special Drawing Rights’ for priority skills.