PARLIAMENT - The Minister of Finance, James Musoni, on Monday succeeded to convince Members of Parliament to approve two mega projects on regional power transmission lines and road construction between Rwanda and Burundi.

The power transmission lines dubbed; ‘multinational interconnection electric grid of the Nile equatorial lakes countries project’ consists of construction and upgrading of 769 km of 220 kV and 110 kV power lines and 17 transformer stations to interconnect the electric  grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes (NBI) countries; Rwanda Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

"A protocol of agreement was signed in Tunisia in October 2006 between Rwanda and the African Development Fund (ADF) with a grant of Units of Account USD 30.4m (approx. Rwf 27 billion),” Musoni said.

He added that the project seeks to improve cross border exchange in electricity, improve transitory system stability, safety and supply at lower cost and operational flexibility of interconnected networks in five countries of the Nile Basin Initiative.

"This is part of the government’s plan to modernize and develop the energy sector and to create a long term regional electricity market with a positive impact to the development of a large electricity production unit,” Musoni said.

On the Nyamitanga-Ruhwa-Ntendezi-Mwityazo road project, Musoni told MPs that ADF has agreed to give Rwanda Units of Account 50.6m (Approx. Rwf 44 billion) and that the project will be implemented under the Ministry of Infrastructure.

"This project aims at facilitating the movement of people along Nyamitanga-Ruhwa-Ntendezi-Mwityazo road. Being a multinational, the project will improve the cooperation between east African countries,” said Musoni.

Musoni said that during the implementation of the project, 50km will be rehabilitated and awareness on environmental protection and HIV/Aids will be going on as well.

Other mini-projects within the multinational project include the development of 60km of rural roads, construction and equipping the common border post.

"All these Projects are in line with President Paul Kagame’s 2003 manifesto,” Musoni told MPs. After presenting the documents, lawmakers enormously endorsed the projects.

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