He was speaking at the opening of the Nuclear Energy Innovation Summit for Africa (NESIA 2025) in Kigali on June 30, 2025.
The two-day summit, running until July 1, 2025, brought together experts from 30 countries to discuss how nuclear energy, particularly through small modular reactors and micro reactors, can transform Africa's energy landscape.
Dr. Ngirente highlighted the critical role of nuclear energy in addressing Africa's energy deficit, where over 600 million people lack access to electricity and rely on unsustainable biomass sources.
He emphasized that Rwanda's Vision 2050, which aims to transform the country into an upper middle-income nation by 2035 and a high-income nation by 2050, requires a significant boost in energy capacity.
'Our country will need up to 5 GW in electricity generation capacity,' Ngirente revealed. 'All available internal energy sources can provide up to 1 GW. Therefore, Rwanda has decided to use nuclear energy for power generation to avoid the imbalance in energy demand and supply.'
The Prime Minister underscored the urgency of adopting nuclear energy as a clean, reliable, and weather-independent power source to bridge the continent's energy gap, which hinders growth and development.
He noted that Africa's population is projected to exceed 3 billion in the next 40 years, making it potentially the largest energy market globally, driven by industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of artificial intelligence.
However, unevenly distributed renewable resources like solar, wind, and hydropower limit electricity access in many regions, exacerbating reliance on forest resources and threatening ecosystems amid climate change.
Dr. Ngirente pointed to the vulnerability of traditional energy sources, citing the 2024 water level drop in the Zambezi River, which forced the Kariba Dam to cut electricity production, exposing the risks climate change poses to Africa's energy infrastructure.
'Nuclear energy is clean, reliable, and does not depend on the rain or sun. It provides consistent power, day and night,' he stated, advocating for its role in achieving global net-zero carbon emissions, as recognized by the Paris Agreement and COP29.
The Prime Minister also addressed misconceptions about nuclear energy, emphasizing its peaceful and innovative applications for power generation, agriculture, and healthcare.
Rwanda is particularly focused on deploying smaller and micro nuclear power plants, which are more affordable for smaller energy systems and can be integrated into the national energy mix.
'This will accelerate our economic transformation towards a knowledge-based economy,' Ngirente added.
Dr. Ngirente also called for regional collaboration to turn Africa's energy challenges into opportunities, urging immediate action to diversify the continent's energy mix.
'The time to act is now. Climate change is real, and our population is growing. Nuclear is part of that solution,' he concluded.
Related article: Rwanda to launch nuclear electricity generation by 2030
Théophile Niyitegeka
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/rwanda-targets-5-gigawatts-in-nuclear-energy-by-2050
