Mauritian company Ignite Power Ltd signed with Rwanda an agreement to provide electricity to 250,000 households with solar systems. The project will be implemented over five years and cost $50 million which will be fully financed by Ignite.

“Distributing these solar kits will allow Rwanda to overcome the limitations of its power grid and rapidly provide populations cheaper electricity. We are therefore proud to be part of this effort for large-scale electrification,” director of Ignite Power, Yariv Cohen, said. The households which will receive these solar systems will be able to pay them back over two years.

Germaine Kamayirese, Rwanda’s minister of energy said implementing this project would increase the current 1% share of off-grid systems in the energy mix to 10% by 2018. The project is part of government’s plan to electrify 70% of rural households by 2018. 22% of these households will be connected through off-grid power systems. Therefore, 530,000 households will receive the system by then.

Gwladys Johnson