Kigali, January 19, 2016, The Government of Rwanda signed an agreement with Ignite Power ltd, a Mauritian firm for the implementation of a rural off grid standalone solar systems electrification project.

The agreement is meant to provide solar energy solutions, to 250,000 households in Rwanda (equivalent to 10% of access) by 2018.   The agreement will see Ignite Power Ltd invest more than $50 million (about Rwf37 billion) into off-grid power solution for the next five years, YARIV Cohen, the CEO of Ignite Power Ltd, said.

The Government of Rwanda targets to connect 70% of Rwanda’s households to electricity by 2018 under the Energy Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP), developed under EDPRS II. A target of 48% of households has been set for “on-grid” connections while 22% of households have been targeted for “off grid” electricity provision.

Significant investment is required in “off-grid” energy access to meet these targets. The number of households with an off-grid connection is currently at less than 1%, this will need to increase to around 530,000 households by 2017/18, which is equivalent to 22%.

The Minister of State in charge of Energy, Water and Sanitation Germaine KAMAYIRESE who signed the agreement on behalf of the government of Rwanda said “The project is part of the Vision 2020 plan to increase access to electricity in the rural communities. This project will enable energy access in places that would be hard to connect to the main grid. We believe renewable energy projects like this have multiple advantages by providing clean and environmentally- friendly energy.”

The Ministry of Infrastructure believes that signing an agreement with IGNITE POWER LTD, will contribute to increasing access to electricity by electrifying 250,000 households (equivalent to 10%). Besides, signing the agreement accelerates the Government plans towards achieving the target of 70% access to electricity by June 2018.

On behalf of IGNITE POWER Ltd, Mr. YARIV Cohen the CEO of IGNITE Rwanda declared: “Clean energy is the best solution for Africa power needs. Distributed solar energy is enabling communities to leapfrog beyond the grid and bring power quicker and cheaper to African communities. We are proud to partner with the Government of Rwanda and take part in this transformational effort of deploying access to energy at large scale."

This agreement with IGNITE POWER Ltd will be for five (5) years (2016 - 2020).  Distribution and installation period of the off-grid systems will be done in 3 years (2016 - 2018).  The last beneficiary households (2018) will have 2 years to pay for the system (2018 - 2020) through monthly or weekly payments depending on the contract between ignite and the beneficiary.

In 2014, the government of Rwanda and Ignite Power Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provided the framework for large scale deployment of solar electric systems across rural communities in Rwanda, following successful implementation of a pilot project of 1000 households.

The Government of Rwanda and Ignite now enters into a long term agreement whereby Ignite will install between 250,000 and 1 million solar electric systems across Rwanda.

The pilot phase was for a six (6) month period, during which IGNITE installed over 1000 solar home systems in the following designated Districts: Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Rwamagana, Rulindo, Gakenke and Kamonyi. Upon successful implementation of the Pilot Project, negotiations commenced leading to the signing of this agreement.

The Government of Rwanda has set to install 563MW of power generation by 2018, from the current installed capacity of 185MW.