The 5.5MW Mushishito-Rukarara V Hydropower Plant was recently inaugurated in Rwanda. The plant will boost electricity supply in the country and protect the environment.
Rwanda’s Prime Minister Édouard Ngirente and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Kumar K. Jugnauth jointly inaugurated the hydropower plant.
The project is located in the Nyamagabe District and tapping Mushishito and Rukarara running streams meant construction at a cost of Rwf32billion ($31.1 million) by Omnihydro – a Mauritius based company through financing from the Mauritius Commercial Bank.
The project was executed on the basis of a Power Purchase Agreement signed between the company and the Energy Utility Corporation Ltd of Rwanda (EUCL). It will connect over 175,000 homes with clean energy and is expected to contribute to the country’s ambition of 100% electricity for all by 2024.
In terms of its environmental impact the hydropower plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 14,500T per year. This is equivalent to tree plantation of some 1,000 hectares per year.
Ngirente thanked the government and people of Mauritius for believing and investing $800m, equivalent to 25% of the country’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With this track record Ngirente said that Rwanda will continue to ease and support foreign investments through ease of doing business so as to address the current challenges which include access to clean energy.
“This investment advances our targets and advancement to ensure access to affordable and clean energy. We all know how energy is fundamental in our lives and there is a direct relationship between access to energy and socioeconomic development,” Ngirente said.
