As the 2015 Rwanda day in The Netherlands came to a close in the Netherlands, foreign companies have shown interest in investing in Rwanda’s energy sector, a move likely to help the country achieve energy targets.
The companies from France and Italy are looking at investing in renewable energy, one of the priority areas where the country is wooing private investors to invest in.
“We wish to invest in Rwanda’s energy mainly in solar very soon,” Andrew Shabnicker, a representative of Italian companies aid during the 2015 Rwanda Day on Saturday.
The 2015 Rwanda day that was graced by His Excellency President Paul Kagame attracted Rwandans in Diaspora as well as friends of Rwanda with all pledging to contribute to the development of the country.
Meanwhile, a consortium of companies from France also pledged to invest over 200 million euros in the country’s energy sector during the event.The country is looking at producing 563 Mega Watts of energy by 2017 in order to meet the expected demand of energy.
Currently, Rwanda produces only 125Mega Watts.
The investments also come at the time the government opened doors for private investments in the sector as a way of boosting its production, moreover setting up incentives for investments going to energy.
The private sector is involved in power generation through Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) and Private Public Partnerships (PPP’s) structures,”Olivier Ngororabanga, Energy Specialist told this website.
According to the structures, the investors are assured of a minimum 25 years concession Agreement under the Power Purchase Agreement which ensures returns on investment by the investor.