- President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera says his administration is set to connect free electricity to 32,325 households.
- Malawi Electricity Access Project to be completed in 2024.
- Mozambique- Malawi electricity interconnector project will allow for importing and exporting of power.
- President Dr. Lazarus secured a 25-million-dollar financing agreement.
The administration of President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera is set to connect free electricity to 32,325 households country-wide under the Ndwala Initiative through the Rural Electrification Fund. on Friday the 17th of February, in Lilongwe he gave his State of the Nation address at the opening of the 1st meeting of the 50th Session of Parliament and the 2023/2024 budget meeting where he announced the plans to connect free electricity. He also mentioned that the government is set to connect 30,325 low-income households to the national grid.
The president said “we are also increasing access to electricity through grid connection of 180,000 ESCOM customers under the World Bank-funded.
Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP) to be completed next year as well as the construction of 16 mini-grids under MEAP, MARE the UNDP
supported Access to Clean and Renewable Energy (ACRE) project, which will connect 200, 000 off-grid customers by next year as well.”
He explained that his top priority is the provision of reliable electricity for Malawians. He further stated that even though his efforts have suffered a major setback this past year when the power supply was destroyed by tropical storms, his administration is working to rectify the situation. He also added that although the deadline to restore the Kapichira Power Plant by the end of the last quarter of 2022 was missed due to concerns for the environment, engineers are on target to restore partial generation of power from the plant by the end of this quarter.
He also expressed his satisfaction when he said “Meanwhile, the Mozambique – Malawi Interconnector Project which will allow us to import and export power to the Southern African Power Pool is now finally underway, with construction having begun in November 2022 Even more encouraging is the fact that in June 2022, we commissioned the 20Megawatts Golomoti Power Station with Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), “
“We also secured a 25-million-dollar financing agreement to enable Golomoti Solar to capitalize on this investment in solar power generation, as well as similar agreements with Elsewedy and AMA Power Similarly, the construction of the 21 Megawatts Serengeti Solar Power Station in Nkhotakota is near completion and will be commissioned in the coming weeks,” he added.