Access to electricity has the potential to improve productivity and provide considerable welfare benefits in remote areas, for which there is a need for a reliable and affordable source of electrical energy such as micro and small hydropower .Especially in small, remote areas where there is no grid supply of electricity. This study has been conducted at Nyabarongo River Basin of Rwanda along with eight gauged stations with the purpose of assessing the hydropower potential based on micro to

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... hydropower potential sites. The potential sites were located on the gauged stations, and the catchment area for the potential sites was delineated with the help of the arc SWAT with geographic information system (GIS) and contour map was done by showing different heads. Since the stream flow had missed data, the arithmetic mean method was exploited and double mass curve was used to check its consistency. Flow duration curve, power duration curve and energy duration curve were plotted then; power and energy of the potential sites were estimated. Based on this eight sites have already been identified with the total energy output from monthly flow for was calculated and found to be1459.04 GWh, and the total energy output taken from flow duration curve was 1193.35GWh . The selected turbine was Francis turbine which is compatible with micro and small hydropower with the efficiency ranging between65-80% and in this study the efficiency of 75% was selected to be used. for all eight stations. Finally, rank of the sites based on cost per Kwh, distance from the grid and accessibility was done on which Mwaka and Warufu get first and least rank respectively, and classification of hydropower plant has been done based on head of water available where Warufu, Ruliba and Kanzenze are found to be in low head hydroelectric power plants and Mfune,Akany-ngozi,Karungrli ,Ngaru and Mwaka are in medium head hydroelectric power plant [...]