East African Business Week

KIGALI, RWANDA - The first school electrified by solar energy in Rwanda was inaugurated recently in Bugesera District, East of the country contributing to the East African nation's quest to sustain itself on energy, which is critically needed for national development.
The school, Musenyi in Musenyi sector was electrified under the project dubbed Increase Rural Energy Access in Rwanda through Public-Private Partnerships (IREARPPP), which will benefit 300 rural schools in 27 different districts in the country.
The supply and installation of equipment for this project is co-financed by the European Commission by EUR3.8 million and the Government of Rwanda by EUR 2 million.
The implementing agency is the private company Isofoton and its local sub-contractors Siteco and Intertech.
This solar power component adds to the mini-hydropower component within the same project Rukarara-II, a plant of 2 Megawatts (MW) in Nyamagabe district, south of Rwanda to supply electricity to around 30.000 households, implemented by the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) with EU financing of EUR 4.1 million.
Rwanda has highlighted multiple sources of electricity aranging from solar, methane gas, thermal and hydropower sources. The country currently has close to 100 megawatts of installed capacity but supply is less than that.
The government officials say that the country should have at least 1000 megawatts by 2017 and at least half of the country's inhabited area should have electricity by 2017.  
This will however require heavy investment of US$4 billion, which is expected to come from both public and private sources.