Uganda secures funding for rural electrification

August 4, 2016 in Business, Energy, Financial Services, Renewable by Editor

KAMPALA, August4-Uganda’s finance ministry has secured parliamentary approval for a $71million World Bank loan that will be used by the Rural Electrification Agency to extend electric power coverage to more rural households.

The line of credit will support efforts to extend access to electricity beyond the current 300,000 rural consumers that have access to electricity. The approved loan will finance a series of investments in power distribution and off-grid solutions required to achieve the $950million 2013-2022 Rural Electrification Strategy (RESP) of increasing electricity access to about 26 percent of the rural population by 2022.

The northern Uganda districts of Gulu, Lira, Nebbi, Arua, Kole, Oyam and Nwoya are some of the areas expected to benefit under the project.

Currently only 7 percent of the population in rural areas have access to electricity today but this number is expected to grow to an eventual 26 percent at the end of the program.

On-grid services are expected to expand by approximately 1.28 million new service connections while off-grid services will increase by 140,000 additional installations of solar PV systems and mini-grid distribution service connections.