Tanzania Sign USD209m MoU with World Bank for Rural Electrification Expansion

The World Bank (WB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Tanzania to provide USD209m for the implementation of the country’s Rural Electrification Expansion Program.

The program aims to connect 2.5m Tanzanian households in rural areas to the national electricity grid over the next 5 years.

The MoU was signed on August 16th 2016 by Bella Bird, WB’s Country Director for Tanzania, Burundi, Malawi and Somalia, and Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, Acting Director General of Tanzania’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

The project will be financed by other development partners as well, including: Norway with USD80m, Sweden (USD70m), EU (USD50m), UK (USD42m) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) (USD25m).

Tanzania’s Minister of Energy and Minerals, Sospeter Muhongo, who witnessed the signing ceremony, explained that these funds will supplement the efforts of Tanzania’s Government aimed at ensuring that all households in the country’s rural areas have electricity.

The Rural Electrification Expansion Project is implemented under the National Rural Electrification Program (NREP) 2013–2022, which includes both on-grid and off-grid solutions.

NREP has 4 priorities: the connection of new customers to the grid in already electrified settlements, new connections to the grid, electrification through off-grid investments, and the development of renewable technologies.

NREP is in line with the Government’s goal of increasing the country’s overall electricity connectivity to 50% by 2025 and to at least 75% by 2033.

As of June 2016, 4,395 villages in Tanzania were connected to electricity, which represents 36% of the 12,268 villages in mainland Tanzania.