DODOMA: A total of 63,611 social institutions have been connected to electricity through the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) up to September this year.
Deputy Minister for Energy, Ms Judith Kapinga, said that the social institutions connected to electricity through REA include 12,905 educational institutions, 6,768 health facilities, 5,872 water pumps, 8,822 places of worship, and 29,294 commercial areas.
She said this yesterday in the National Assembly while responding to a basic question from the Special Seats MP Neema Lugangira, who wanted to know if the government did not see the need to review the REA contract to make the authority responsible for delivering electricity to service centres.
In response, Ms Kapinga said that in the implementation of these projects, priority is given to institutions that provide services to the community, including schools, health centres, dispensaries, water pumps, and religious institutions, in order to improve service delivery to citizens.
She said the government will continue to oversee REA to ensure that it prioritizes the delivery of electricity to public institutions once it has completed rural electrification projects.
“The government, through REA, is continuing with the implementation of various projects to bring electricity to rural areas, where by October 2024, approximately 99 per cent of all villages have been reached by electricity,” she said.
In a supplementary question, Hai MP, Saashisha Mafuwe, said that the cost of connecting electricity, that is, the extension to a house that already has electricity, and the cost of connecting electricity to a new house are the same, and asked if the government did not see the need to differentiate these prices, especially for houses that already have electricity.
The Deputy Minister clarified that connection costs remain the same, regardless of whether it’s for a new house or an extension.
