Lignocellulosic biomass is becoming a primary candidate for bio-fuels production, due to the energy and food security concerns compared to starch and sugar based feed stocks. However those biomasses has limited digestibility due to high lignin content which is reluctant to microbial action in the subsequent step to bioethanol production such as hydroly sis. This study evaluates the effect of Microwave assisted alkali compared to alkali alone pretreated rice husk feedstock on the improvement of lignin removal, cellulose yield and total y ield of reducing sugar for production of bioethanol. The pretreatment were carried out using concentration of 3.5% NaOH at temperature of 40, 60, 80 o C, and MW irradiation power of 300, 450, 600 W at pretreatment time of 15, 30, 60 min. The chemical compositional anal y sis of raw and treated rice husk was characterized using NREL and ASTM procedures in identify the biomass has a potential for fermentable sugar production and The pretreated biomass was evaluated for its reducing sugar y ield via dilute acid hydrol ysis (at 1.5% concentration) at a temperature of 131 o C and contact time of 24 min using DNS method. I t was found that the raw rice husk used for this study has a composition of 33.97% cellulose, 30.48% hemicellulose and 24.13% lignin. A maximum lignin removal of 47.57% and cellulose recover y of 66.52% were achieved with microwave assisted alkali pretreatment at microwave power of 600W and contact time of 30min in contrast to 25.15% lignin removal and 55.78% cellulose content recovery for in alkali pretreatment at a temperature of 80 o C and contact time 60 min. The maximum reducing sugar (glucose) was observed for sample pretreated with MW assisted alkali pretreated (at 600W microwave power and 30 min contact time) which was 380.2 mg/g compared to alkali pretreated alone which was 270.3mg/g at 80 o C, 60min.