Tanzania banks on rural electrification plan to connect a million people

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Tanzania now banks on its rural electrification plan being spearheaded by Rural Energy Agency (REA) to connect a million people to the national grid. The government of Tanzania has set aside a total amount of US$3.22bn to implement the proposed energy project.

According to Boniface Nyamo-Hanga, REA acting General Director, over 7873 local households will be connected to electricity services and the project is expected to be completed in the next five years. He added that US$1.8bn will carter for electrifying villages that have never been connected to electricity services, whereas the remaining US$1.38bn will be used to connect customers in villages where electricity infrastructures are already installed.

The government is expected to provide the project implementation funds raised from the annual levy on petroleum products as well as from development partners whereby 7,697 villages will be connected to the national grid while 176 villages will be connected to other electricity sources.

From this year’s budget, the government of Tanzania has set aside a total amount of US$245.4m to commence the project implementation. Phase III of the project has already kicked off at the beginning of this month. Additionally, a floated tender for local and foreign contractors who wish to implement the project have been offered the opportunity to bid.

However, local contractors are urged to bid for the implementation of the project as the project will be executed in three phases, whereby phase I will involve connecting people from villages that are not connected to electricity infrastructure. Phase II of the project will underline transformers in order to connect many people where there is electricity grid and Phase III will connect people in islands to other sources of energy. All the projects under the agency will be implemented by private contractors through turnkey procedures under the supervision of REA, Trust agent and Tanesco.

Moreover, Tanzania, government will ensure by 2030 about 85% of Tanzania citizens are connected to power services. Nonetheless, communities are called upon to collaborate with REA in order to ensure a successful implementation of the project instead of sabotaging its infrastructures as it has been the case in some areas.