Kigali, 3rd November, 2014.Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. James Musoni officially opened a two day Power and Infrastructure Conference which will discuss in details, Rwanda’s energy sector with particular focus on key investment opportunities in a dynamic and thriving energy sector.

 The event gathered hundreds of investors, project developers, finance houses, construction and planning companies, technology providers from Rwanda, the region and from the rest of the world.

In his remarks, the Minister of Infrastructure emphasized that “It is important to note that, Infrastructure development is one of the six pillars of Rwanda’s vision 2020. The rehabilitation and development of infrastructure is a crucial aspect in lowering the costs of doing business in Rwanda, which will attract domestic and foreign investment.

Rwanda has registered consistently high growth rates of above 7% over the past 10 years and our medium term Development Strategy (2013-2018) targets an average growth rate of 11.5% geared towards achieving middle income status by 2020.

“Rwanda is open for business: there are enormous investment opportunities in the country’s power and infrastructure sectors and the Kigali government has proven that it can provide a stable and investor-friendly business climate”, says Emmanuelle Nicholls, iPAD Rwanda event director, adding that “the forum will play an important role in the transformation of Rwanda into a dynamic global hub for business, investment and innovation.”
 Rwanda currently ranks 1st in the Ease of Doing Business in East Africa and overall 3rd in Africa and 46th in the world (out of 186 countries) as per the 2015 World Bank Doing Business report. 

In the same context, the Government through Rwanda Development Board has embarked on a deliberate process to streamline power sector investment processes and procedures intended to attract private sector investments into the Energy Sector.

The Strategic Plan (2013-2018) projects electricity demand of 563 MW to be generated from a sustainable generation mix of hydro, methane, Geothermal, peat to power and solar to gradually phase out thermal power within two years.  The Government of Rwanda plans to achieve additional 408 MW compared to current installed capacity of 155 MW.

Rwanda presents a host of energy investment opportunities in the energy sector. These projects include among others: Regional and domestic projects mainly 80 MW Rusumo Hydro Electric Project, 147 MW Rusuzi III Hydro Project, 200 MW methane gas concession from lake Kivu, potential Geothermal prospects, Nyabarongo II project and other domestic Micro Hydro Power Plants estimated to generate 150 MW installed capacity and various high voltage transmission lines to evacuate generated electric power for stable and reliable power supply to industries, factories and other productive uses.

The Government does not compete with the private sector and private sector doesn't compete with the government -they are partners; they need to work together. We need to work together by showing those benefits that accrue through the private sector through the activities within the population. But we also on the side of government need to be sensitive to some of the bottlenecks that are there that we can help get out of the way, to allow businesses to thrive.

“We therefore look forward to working with you as we strive to sustainably meet our energy needs to propel the country into middle income status as envisaged by our Vision 2020.Minister quoted”.

The goal is to increase electricity access to Households from current 22 % to 70 % of population connected by 2017/2018.