Egypt’s Orascom to invest up to US$130m in Rwanda

Orascom Construction Industries plans to invest up to US$130m in Rwanda in the next 3-4 years to build a 50MW methane power plant, said a company official.

According to the energy ministry, only 14% of the country’s population has access to power. It plans to raise power generation capacity from 69MW in 2009 to 130MW by end-2012 through investments in small hydropower and methane gas plants. As a result, the government and Orascom have signed an agreement for the latter to build and maintain a methane gas plant at Lake Kivu.

“It’s very early to talk in accurate numbers, but we think investing in the first 50 Megawatts will be in the range of between US$100 to US$130m, but this is very rough,” Mohamed Safeyeldin, Director Africa Operations for Orascom, told a news conference.