Reports that government had made significant headway in its plans to import power from neighbouring countries could not have come at a better time. Currently, Rwanda has an installed power capacity of about 147MW after 28MW from the Nyabarongo plant came online this week, way below the projected capacity of 563MW by 2017.

The country continues to experience serious power shortages, which affect industrial activity and other businesses. That’s why the planned importation of 400MW of power from Ethiopia and 30MW more from Kenya, starting next year, is welcome news, especially for manufacturers.

It’s no secret that for an economy to be competitive it must have affordable and reliable power supply. Power is very essential in driving the manufacturing sector and value-addition initiatives by SMEs across all sectors.

As such, when the 430MW of power is eventually added to the grid over the next few years, firms that have been forced to operate below capacity because of insufficient electricity supply would scale up production and create more jobs.

Complaints of heavy losses suffered due to constant power outages should hopefully cease about three years or so, especially with more plants expected to boost the capacity of the national grid next year. A steady supply of sufficient power, especially for industrial use, is essential for enterprise development and overall economic development.

Needless to say, significant increase in power supply will go a long way in helping the country to achieve its mid- and long-term development agendas, notably the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRSII) and Vision 2020, which broadly seek to transform the country into a middle-income economy.

But there is need to ensure that all the necessary power infrastructure upgrades are carried out in time– in readiness for the projected electricity imports – to avoid any unnecessary delays in efforts to deliver the electricity capacity necessary to power the economy.