Electricity back at Bingu Stadium after 7 months
After nearly seven months without power, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has reconnected Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Lilongwe.
Escom disconnected power at the state-of-the-art facility following government’s failure to settle accumulated bills amounting to K22 million.
Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila and the stadium’s spokesperson Ireen Mkoko confirmed the development yesterday.
Said Kasaila: “Power at the stadium has been reconnected after the bill was settled and we are now discussing with Escom and our colleagues from [Ministry of] Energy and Mining to find a lasting solution to the challenge.”
Last week, the minister told our sister paper, The Nation, that the delay to clear the bill was caused by communication breakdown between the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and Treasury.
“We had been trying to source funding from the Treasury, but the process was met by some funding clearance challenges,” he said.
The minister recently said they are also considering the possibility of privatising the facility which is struggling financially.
“In the long-term, we believe that either the stadium stands as a Treasury part so that out of the resources it generates, it should be able to fend for itself or we should allow private entities to manage it since it has a lot of capacity to generate more revenue.
“These are the aspects that are being considered and we are discussing with Treasury because they are responsible for funding.
“[But] at this point, it is difficult to say which way we are going to take because we need to convince the other stakeholders , in this case Treasury and the OPC [office of the President and Cabinet,” he said.
In his response then, Treasury spokesperson Davis Sado said they were evaluating the proposals made by the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development on how the facility’s financial situation can be improved. Treasury gives BNS K3 million every month for its operations, which according to management, is not enough to meet water and electricity bills which total over K8 million every month.
