There is fresh evidence that Public-Private-Partnership, PPP, is alive and well in Rwanda. And the people of Rwanda will be the main beneficiaries of the latest deal. The Chief Operating Officer of Symbion Energy and Highland Group Holdings Ltd. (HGHL), Paul Hinks, has signed an agreement that will see HGHL co-investing $100 million towards the implementation of a $370 million, 106 megawatts of methane gas generated power on Rwanda’s Lake Kivu.
Lake Kivu contains an estimated 55 billion cubic meters of naturally occurring methane gas. The total power generation potential of the resource has been conservatively estimated at more than 500 MW over a 40-year period. Only 25 Megawatts is currently being produced.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in New York City, Mr. Hinks stated, “We are very excited about our new partnership with HGHL, which is injecting $100 million of cash equity into the Rwanda projects of Symbion Energy. The work will begin in earnest in November 2017 and this funding means we can fast track at least 22MW of power within 18 months. Roughly 8 to 10 MW of that can be available by mid 2018 from the existing plant we acquired in 2016 which is known as KP1. It will be rehabilitated and expanded.”
Mr. Hinks continued, “Rwanda is one of the very few countries in Africa that properly plans ahead of time and they understand that substantial power capacity is necessary to attract investors to create economic growth and deliver electricity to its population. The demand for power in Rwanda is suppressed by the lack of surplus capacity and these two projects will facilitate continued growth. As far as mainland Sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, Rwanda ranks highest in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index and our experience there is a complete endorsement of that. HGHL’s confidence in the country and in Symbion is evidenced by their willingness to make Rwanda their first large-scale investment in Africa.”
Lord Irvine Laidlaw, Chairman of HGHL, said “This is perhaps the most interesting and exciting project that I have undertaken, inclusive of our recent offshore wind farms in the North Sea, in Germany.” He continued, “We will be producing electricity by utilizing a unique renewable resource, methane from the bottom of Lake Kivu. Delivering this will be a challenge I look forward to.” “Even more important, we are generating power for one of the fastest growing countries in Africa, so we’ll be making a major contribution to its continued growth. As with all my colleagues I am proud to be assisting Rwanda,” said Mr. Laidlaw.
