Prime Minister Dr. Edouard Ngirente (middle) and nuclear energy experts in a meeting on Dec 17, 2024
Prime Minister Dr. Edouard Ngirente met with a delegation of government officials and nuclear energy experts to discuss the way towards developing nuclear energy in Rwanda.
The delegation, led by Dr. Lassina Zebro, the Chairman of Rwanda Atomic Energy Board (RAEB) and Strategy and Policy Council (SPC) Special Advisor to the President, met with PM Ngirente Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at the Office of the Prime Minister.
The meeting was held alongside the ongoing 2024 continental Ministerial Round Table on Financing Africa’s Nuclear Energy held in Kigali this week.
Zebro said that the meeting was a follow-up on President Paul Kagame’s vision of implementing the nuclear program in Rwanda especially implementing the small nuclear reactors (SNR).
“We talk about electricity but electricity here (in Rwanda) it is a bit different. What we need is energy for the social economic development of this country and this is exactly what President Kagame has set for the continent in general,” Zebro said.
Zebro urged that Rwanda, as a pilot nation in nuclear energy in Africa, needs to invest in it and also to accommodate the growing investment into the manufacturing industry in Rwanda.
He commented that without energy Rwanda cannot reach the level of the industrial growth it is aiming for as stipulated in the five-year National Strategic Plan2 (NST2).
Rwanda’s NST2 intends to increase trade exports from $3.5 billion to $7.3billion on the basis of increased local manufacturing industry.
The infrastructure minister, Dr. Jimmy Gasore said that Rwanda needs nuclear energy because it is clean and environmentally friendly, explaining that the country will need 10 times the current demand in the next 25 years.
“Considering the lakes and other water bodies we have, there are no other sources of energy to meet that demand. Therefore, nuclear energy will be vital in meeting this demand in the future,” Gasore said.
Rwanda’s energy supply currently stands at nearly 80 percent with over 55 percent from the grid and 23 percent from renewable energy, according to Rwanda Energy Group June 2024 statistics.
Rwanda currently needs nuclear energy to improve its cancer treatment services and storage for agricultural exports.
The country has had 300 Rwandans trained in the nuclear energy expertise since 2019.
