The government is planning to double connectivity to electricity in the country after landing a Rwf19.8 billion loan.

While the official figures indicate that the electricity access rate in the rural areas still hangs around 15 per cent compared with about 76 per cent in urban areas, the funding will enable the government to increase the connectivity in the least connected rural areas.

According to the government's official figures, 134, 000 households countrywide are connected to electricity, which represents 57.4 per cent of the entire population. The loan will enable the government to expand the electricity connectivity to 270,000 people in Muhanga, Kamonyi and Gakenke districts.

Districts like Muhanga, Kamonyi and Gakenke are among the least connected districts with electricity, with each of them only have around 40 per cent of the entire population connected both with on-grid and off-grid electricity.

According to the 2020 budget execution report of Muhanga district, Nyabinoni Rongi and Kibangu sectors are the less connected areas.

“Many parts of the district are not connected to the electricity, which hampers any effort for development endeavour for the people here, mostly the residents from far-flung and remote parts of the district including Nyabinoni and Rongi sectors,” Callixte Ndagijimana, a resident of Muhanga district told Rwanda Today on the phone interview.

“We are currently pushing to have the electricity connection reaches those remote areas of Nyabinoni, Rongi and Kibangu sectors, and are least connected as of now,” Innocent Kayiranga, the vice-mayor in charge of economic affair in Muhanga district told Rwanda Today.