Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has announced significant strides in Rwanda's infrastructure development, particularly in electricity and water access for households, during his presentation on Tuesday, January 23.

The progress report, delivered at the 19th National Dialogue Council Umushyikirano, highlighted achievements under the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), a seven-year programme.

Umushyikirano kicked off on January 23, with a focus on national development, unity and youth empowerment. It runs through January 24.

One of the government's targets under NST1 was to achieve universal energy access among Rwandan households.

Ngirente pointed out that electricity access for all programme, which is still in progress, has so far yielded good results.

"Within this period of seven years, more than 1.5 million new households were connected to electricity. This brought the total number of households with access to electricity to 74 per cent [in 2023] from 34.4 per cent [in 2017].

Such data imply that 26 per cent of Rwandan households have not yet access to electricity.

"This programme continues because our target is to ensure that every household in our country gets access to electricity," Ngirente said.

Strides in water access

Regarding water access for residents, the premier said that seven water treatment plants were set up - including Nzove, Kanzenze, Gihira, Kanyonyomba, Mwoya, Nkombo and Nyankora.

"This contributed to almost a twofold increase in the quantity of water treated daily such that we surpassed the target we had set. The target was to reach 303,000 cubic metres (m3), but we achieved 330,000 m3," Ngirente said.

Again, the premier indicated that water [pipe] networks spanning 1,800 kilometres in urban areas, and more than 2,000 kilometres in rural areas were constructed. Still, 191 non-functioning water networks were rehabilitated in rural areas.

"The government will continue expanding these networks, and carry on the clean water access programme to residents as we believe it is the source of hygiene and welfare," Ngirente said.