Energy ministry to decrease power cut by increasing electricity price

This Monday 31 July, the Minister of Energy and Mining, Côme Manirakiza, presented an assessment of the ministry’s achievements for the first semester of the on-going year. He has promised that electricity will be available soon but says prices will have to increase.

Côme Manirakiza, Minister of Energy and Mining: “Electricity will be available soon but says prices will have to increase”

“REGIDESO, a company in charge of power supply, has signed a deal with Interpetrol Company, which will supply diesel power in the country up to 30MW starting from this August. We intend to decrease as much as possible the power outage and supply electricity to all our clients”, said the Energy Minister.

However, this power cut reduction will be accompanied by payment increase. The council of ministers has recently adopted a bill on the revision of the prices of electricity for an average of 0, 2 dollar per KW.

“We will soon inform our local clients about the new tariffs according to different categories. This will be applied as soon as we get the 30MW which we think will be available from this August”, says the minister
Gabriel Rufyiri, President of a local NGO involved in the fight against corruption and embezzlement (OLUCOME) sees the ministry’s decision as a consequence of the aid suspension by the European Union. “The European Union used to support the sector of electricity up to 25%. It is not now that the European Union has suspended its aid that they are going to handle the issue”, he said.

He rather advises the ministry to tackle the matter by first addressing its root causes. “The ministry’s decision to increase the electricity price is the consequence of the economic crisis which the country is going through. They should rather address the real causes to get out of the crisis”.

Noël Nkurunziza, chairman of ABUCO, the local association of consumers says the increase in price is not a solution to the power outage at all. Such a decision will worsen the situation which was already bad. “The population will not be able to afford the high prices. Given the current economic situation, there is a risk that even those who were still surviving by doing small jobs may give up”, says Nkurunziza.

He advises REGIDESO staff to proceed with an audit and see if there has been no mismanagement in their institution.