Burundi has marked the completion of one of the most significant power sector investments in its recent history with the official inauguration of the Jiji and Mulembwe hydropower plants.
The two run-of-river hydropower schemes, located in the southern part of the country, have a combined installed capacity of 49.5 MW and substantially increase Burundi's domestic renewable electricity generation capacity. Jiji, with an installed capacity of 32.5 MW, was officially inaugurated by President Évariste Ndayishimiye on 24 June 2025. Mulembwe, with a capacity of 17 MW, followed on 16 June 2026, when the plant was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Nestor Ntahontuye.
Together, the two plants represent the completion of a long-running development project that was prepared more than a decade ago and brought together financing from the Government of Burundi and four major international development partners: the World Bank, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank and European Union.
Two complementary run-of-river schemes
The Jiji and Mulembwe plants are located on neighbouring rivers in the mountainous southern part of Burundi, in the wider Bururi area. Both schemes are designed as run-of-river hydropower plants, making use of the steep topography and relatively favourable river flows to generate electricity without the need for large storage reservoirs.
The Jiji plant is the larger of the two schemes, with an installed capacity of 32.5 MW. Water is diverted by a concrete structure approximately 13.5 metres high and passes through a desilting basin and a water conveyance system comprising a 700-metre canal and a 1.1-kilometre tunnel before reaching the powerhouse. The plant is equipped with three Pelton turbines operating under a gross head of approximately 439 metres.
At Mulembwe, the 17 MW plant is similarly based on a high-head run-of-river configuration. Its approximately 14-metre-high concrete diversion structure feeds water through a desilting basin and an intake tunnel of around 1.1 kilometres. The powerhouse is equipped with three Pelton turbines operating under a head of approximately 258 metres.
The electro-mechanical equipment for both plants was supplied by ANDRITZ Hydro. The company supplied three horizontal Pelton turbine-generator units for each station, with Jiji equipped with three approximately 11 MW-class units and Mulembwe with three 6.1 MW units, together with the associated generators, governors, inlet valves, cooling systems, electrical equipment and automation and control systems.
The reservoirs associated with the schemes are relatively small, with the Jiji reservoir designed to hold approximately 80,000 m³ and the Mulembwe reservoir approximately 40,000 m³. Their primary purpose is to support daily operational management rather than long-term or seasonal storage.
The generation facilities form part of a wider package of transmission infrastructure designed to evacuate the electricity into Burundi's national grid. The project included 110 kV substations at the two power plants and additional substations and transmission facilities to strengthen the network and enable the new generation capacity to be delivered to consumers.
A project conceived to address a major electricity deficit
The Jiji and Mulembwe project was conceived at a time when Burundi faced one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world and severe constraints in domestic generation capacity.
When the World Bank approved its initial US$100 million IDA grant for the project in April 2014, only around four percent of Burundi's population had access to electricity. National electricity demand was growing rapidly, while the country remained heavily constrained by limited generation capacity and reliance on expensive thermal generation and electricity imports.
The combined output of Jiji and Mulembwe was originally expected to substantially increase Burundi's installed generation capacity. More recently, the World Bank has estimated that the two plants could supply around 235 GWh of clean electricity annually, equivalent to a significant share of the country's previous electricity production.
From approval to completion
The development of Jiji and Mulembwe has been a long process. The project was prepared with extensive environmental and social studies and consultations with communities in the project area. Following the approval of financing in 2014, implementation was undertaken through a dedicated project implementation unit within Burundi's national water and electricity utility, REGIDESO.
Construction, however, proved considerably more difficult and time-consuming than originally anticipated.
According to the World Bank, implementation was affected by a combination of factors, including the political crisis that followed in 2015, the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges in contract management, changes to the design in response to geological conditions, and shortages of foreign currency. These difficulties resulted in substantial delays and increased project costs.
Nevertheless, construction continued and the first turbine at Jiji began operating in early June 2025. President Évariste Ndayishimiye officially inaugurated the 32.5 MW Jiji plant on 24 June 2025, in a ceremony attended by government representatives and the project's development partners.
The final milestone followed almost a year later. On 16 June 2026, Prime Minister Nestor Ntahontuye officially inaugurated the Mulembwe hydropower plant, completing the commissioning and formal inauguration of the two-plant project.
During the Mulembwe inauguration, the Prime Minister was given a tour of the installations by REGIDESO Director General Jean Albert Manigomba, including the water intake and treatment facilities and the powerhouse. The government presented the new infrastructure as an important contribution to increasing electricity supply and supporting Burundi's longer-term economic development ambitions.
A major international financing partnership
The Jiji and Mulembwe project was developed through a substantial co-financing arrangement involving several international financial institutions and development partners.
At the time of the original financing arrangements, the total project cost was estimated at approximately US$270 million. The financing package included a US$100 million IDA grant from the World Bank, US$95 million from the European Investment Bank, a US$22 million grant from the African Development Bank, a European Union grant of approximately US$36.6 million and a contribution from the Government of Burundi.
The European Union financing was administered through arrangements involving the World Bank, while the African Development Bank supported both the hydropower infrastructure and broader institutional development in the electricity sector.
As construction progressed and delays and additional challenges emerged, the project's financing requirements increased. In January 2024, the World Bank approved an additional US$50 million in financing to help complete the project and avoid disruption to works on the critical path to commissioning.
The final project cost was consequently higher than the original estimate, illustrating both the scale of the undertaking and the difficulties involved in developing major infrastructure in a fragile and capacity-constrained environment.