A PAYMENT of $92.8 million was made to the Energy Fiji Ltd (EFL) for the implementation of grid extension for 12,417 farming households across the country.
This was revealed by the Minister for Infrastructure, Jone Usamate, while responding to questions on the rural electrification program in Parliament yesterday.
He said there were 69,247 farmers in Fiji of which most had been assisted through the rural electrification program. Mr Usamate said over the past five years, Government had invested about $163m in the program.
He said in the next three years, Government had set a target to connect another additional 2500 houses to the grid extension.
“This is to complement Fiji’s target of achieving 100 per cent access (to electricity) by 2021.
“The ministry is working closely with the EFL on the monitoring of ongoing grid extension projects on a weekly basis.
“More resources have been engaged including manpower, machineries, and other logistics to meet project demand and timelines,” Mr Usamate said.
He said the ministry and the EFL continued to improve and enhance their processes to ensure timely and effective delivery to all customers.
