Draka’s Fiber Powers Rwanda

Optical fiber and cabling company Draka Communications announced that it is in the deployment phase of a nationwide project to install fiber optic infrastructure throughout the Republic of Rwanda.

Rwanda’s population density is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. This country has few villages, and nearly every family lives in a self-contained compound. Photo courtesy of “les Amis de Ahazaza” Education project, Rwanda.

This project entails running fiber optic cables along electricity transmission and distribution lines to link all the power plants, substations and town offices of Rwanda’s public power company, including the national control center in its capital, Kigali. The infrastructure will also interconnect an advanced management system for the country’s high- and medium-voltage electrical grid. The project is the result of an agreement signed last year between Amsterdam-based Draka and Electrogaz, Rwanda’s public power company, together with Mininfra, Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure, and Minecofin, its Ministry of Economic Planning and Finance. The project, which is estimated to span 24 months, is partially funded by a grant from the Dutch foreign aid program ORET (Development-Related Export Transactions Program) and partially by the government of Rwanda.