REA bemoans low uptake of electricity
LOW uptake of electricity in rural areas despite the availability of infrastructure has worried the Rural Electrification Authority (REA).
Chief Executive officer, Engineer Linus Chanda said the authority has been undertaking implementation of various rural electrification projects with funding mainly from the government, however, the uptake has remained very low.
Mr. Chanda said the overall rural electrification access rate was still low at 8.1% for grid connections due to high connection fees measured against comparative household socio-economic status of rural communities.
He was concerned that despite REA creating electricity infrastructure, the level of uptake in the rural areas was very low.
And Mr. Chanda said as of 30 May, 2022, REA made 47, 832 connections to households and commercial level under the $33.5 million Electricity Services Access Project (ESAP) subsidy program implemented in 2017 which comes to an end this month.
He said 40, 731 connections were done at households and 1, 101 for small and medium enterprises under a credit facility from the World Bank and SIDA with the objective of accelerating electricity access in rural areas.
Mr. Chanda said the coming to an end of the ESAP project was against the growing demand for rural households to be connected under the subsidy program.
He however said the government has started to engage the World Bank with a view of mobilizing funds for a similar project in the near future
Mr. Chanda said the overall rural electrification access rate was still low at 8.1% for grid connections due to high connection fees measured against comparative household socioeconomic status of rural communities.