Rwanda has signed a deal with China’s SynoHydro to build the Nyabarongo-II Hydropower Plant to be in operation in five years time. The 43.5MW plant at a cost of $214 million is expected to give a major boost to Rwanda’s efforts to achieve universal access to electricity by 2024. Apart from electricity generation, the multi-purpose dam will be used for flood control, irrigation systems and reclaiming of land for agricultural activities. Nyabarongo I hydropower project, the first phase of the project, is designed for power generation only.
According to REG, Rwanda Energy Group Limited (REG), a government-owned holding company responsible for the import, export, procurement, generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity, Rwanda generates electricity from 40 power plants, mainly hydro projects. It proposes to build more plants and upgrade existing ones to add 400MW by the year 2024, to acheive100 percent access to electricity.
