- President Paul Kagame has said that Rwanda is exploring the idea of embracing modular nuclear reactors to facilitate increasing the country’s energy generation.
- President Kagame said the lack of access is a problem and an opportunity.
President Paul Kagame has said that Rwanda is exploring the idea of embracing modular nuclear reactors to facilitate increasing the country’s energy generation. The Rwandan leader made the revelation on Wednesday during an interview at the Columbia Global Energy Summit in New York that was broadcast online. He said, “Some partners have proposed the idea of modular nuclear reactors. We want to encourage this new idea; in fact, we are talking to the partners to see what we can do in Rwanda that will influence similar developments elsewhere.”
Kagame said that Rwanda is looking to increase access to electricity. Currently, access to electricity in Rwanda is 61%, and the target is to raise it to 100% by 2024. Rwanda’s generation capacity stands at 276.068MW, and the target is to reach 556MW generation capacity by 2024, according to Rwanda Energy Group, a government-owned holding company responsible for the import, export, procurement, generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity in the country.
In a broader scope, about 600 million people on the continent lack access to electricity. At the same time, demand is expected to grow in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, according to the IEA’s Africa Energy Outlook 2022. President Kagame said the lack of access is a problem and an opportunity. President Kagame said, “Realising middle or high-income status without electricity access is impossible.”
Kagame assured the summit delegates that Africa is full of investment opportunities that should be tapped into. President Kagame said, “I want to assure you that Africa is no riskier for investment than other parts of the world. When you come to Rwanda, you know what to expect. I think this is key for the sustainable success of any country.”