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15m Malawians have no access to power

About 15 million Malawians, representing 91 percent of the total population, live without electricity, putting pressure on natural resources, subduing economic growth and erecting barriers to overcome poverty.

At about nine percent electrification rate, Malawi is one of the countries with the poorest access to electricity in Africa, according to an electricity database prepared by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The country has failed to develop power generation
The country has failed to develop power generation

Malawi’s electricity penetration rate is close to those of war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone at nine percent and five percent respectively.

Breaking the access to electricity into urban and rural, Malawi has about 33 percent of its urban population on the national grid while the rural area has a pitiable five percent of its inhabitants connected to Escom power.

Commenting on the access, Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito on Tuesday said there are a number of challenges that impinge on access to electricity in the country.

He said access to electricity is more prohibitive, requiring more money for households to get connected to the national grid which has resulted in a backlog of connections.

“We have also failed to develop the country’s electricity generation capacity and usually give it a lip service. Money has usually been allocated to the investments, but have been misallocated,” said Kapito.

He feared that the low access to electricity will cause more rampant cutting down of trees, escalating cost of living and subdued economic development, saying entrepreneurs depend on electricity for their businesses.

Kapito said Escom, the country’s sole power supplier, has not been proactive in expanding access to electricity but has been embroilled in politics.

But the government has said it realises that energy is a catalyst to economic development and transformation.

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Atupele Muluzi told Business Review on Tuesday that government is in the process of coming up with a four-year National Energy Plan (NEP) that will improve access to electricity.

“The review of the NEP 2003 will begin immediately and will restructure the power market to double the power generation in the next four years. We will implement deliberate policies to achieve an electricity access rate of more than 30 percent in the next 10 to 15 years,” said Muluzi.

Last year in December, Malawi added 64 megawatts to the national grid through the commissioning of Kapichira Phase II, marginally matching the country’s power supply and demand.

Apart from Kapichira Phase II, Malawi also plans to construct coal-fired power plants at Kammwamba in Neno and at Chipoka in Salima.

To increase access to electricity especially in rural areas, government has also been implementing a rural electrification programme aimed to increase access to power.

 

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