Electricity access

The 05th Population and Housing Census done in August 2022 indicate that in Rwanda the cumulative connectivity rate is 61.0% of Rwandan households including 47% connected to the national grid and 14% accessing through off-grid systems (mainly solar).

During the elaboration of the EDPRS II, the Government of Rwanda took a clear policy decision to diversify the sources of electricity from traditional dominant grid to include even off-grid connections. Subsequently, Households far away from the planned national grid coverage have been encouraged to use alternatively cheaper connections such as Mini-grids and Solar Photovoltaics (PVs) to reduce the cost of access to electricity whilst relieving constraints on historical government subsidies.

The current access targets stipulate that 100% households will have access to electricity by the year 2024. Among these households, 70% will be connected to the grid while 30% will be using off-grid solutions.