Effect of Project Planning Process on Performance of Electricity Projects in Rwanda; A Case of Electricity Access Rollout Program (EARP)

Planning is often cited as the most critical process of the management functions in determining the overall project performance. One of the main reasons of project failure in developing countries is lack of effective planning processes. At the start of the EDPRS 1 period in 2008, one of the main issues in the Rwandan energy sector was poor access to energy. Government then set ambitious targets to significantly increase the number of connections and identified the need for a dedicated roll out program to accelerate this electrification drive. The Electricity Access Rollout Program (EARP) was established in 2009 with a target of increasing electricity access connections from 130, 000 (6 %) to 350, 000 (16 %) by the end of 2012 with emphasis on connecting social infrastructures (100 % of health facilities, 100 % administrative offices, and 50 % schools). However, by June 2014 EARP had not achieved its EDPRS 1 targets in respect of connecting social infrastructures, by then 56 % of health centers, 57 % of administrative units and 36 % of schools had been connected by 2012. The study sought to assess the effect of project planning process on performance of electricity projects in Rwanda, with special focus on Electricity Access Roll out Program (EARP), specifically the study sought to assess the effect of Estimating resources, scope definition risk planning on EARP performance. The researcher used descriptive research, the target population for the study was forty six project staff of EARP. Since the target population of the study was a small number, the researcher preferred to use a census by considering the total population as sample. The researcher concluded a strong relationship between resources estimation and performance of Electricity Access Rollout Program as their p-value (0.006) is statistically significant at 5 % level of significance. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between defining scope and performance of EARP because their p-value (0.000) is statistically significant at 5 % level of significance and there is also a strong correlation between risk planning and performance of Electricity Access Rollout Program. The researcher also concluded that the main reasons behind the failure of Electricity Access Rollout Program to connect off grid solutions to health centers, administrative offices and schools were Most of the EARP project implementing team members (95.7 %) did not participate in preparation of the project charter/ prospectus of (EARP), while 91.3 % of EARP team did not refer to the project charter during the implementation of the project. EARP did not recruit the team responsible for implementation of off grid solutions and did not procure materials for off grid solutions. While EARP increased households connected to grid electricity they failed to connect health centers, schools and administrative offices using off grid solutions, the M& E team did not report the non-implementation of off-grid solutions. The researcher came up with the following recommendations the project owners should involve the project implementation team in the preparation of the project charter so as to ensure the project implementing team understands well all components of the project, The project implementing team should always refer to the project charter during the implementation of the project and the M& E team should also read and understand all components of the project in order to alert the implementation team on what activities that are behind schedule.