Nyusi Renews Commitment To Electrification
Balama (Mozambique), 11 Feb (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday renewed his government’s commitment to the electrification of the country, which he regarded as an essential condition for Mozambican human development.
All district capitals have already been electrified, and the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM is now concentrating on the next layer down in the country’s administrative structure, that of the administrative post.
Nyusi was speaking at the ceremony where the Impire administrative post, in Balama district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, was connected to the national electricity grid. This was the 47th administrative post to be connected to the grid, under EDM’s project to electrify administrative post headquarters.
The government’s target for this year includes 320,000 new electricity connections, and increasing the rate of electricity coverage to 64 per cent of the population.
The work at Impire included building 21 kilometres of medium voltage and 24 kilometres of low voltage transmission line, which will benefit more than 1,500 households. 21 transformer posts were installed and 200 lampposts for public lighting. 337 new clients were connected to the EDM grid.
“This is what we mean when we talk about quality of life”, Nyusi told the crowd. “Energy is one of the crucial elements. It’s an element that drives development. With electricity, we can drive agro-processing, industrialization and tourism”.
He added that the government wants to capitalize on the potential for inter-sector linkages in the respective value chains, with a multiplier effect on job creation and income generation for households.
The EDM electrification programme is being driven by an increase in generating capacity, including solar power stations, such as those at Mocuba, in Zambezia province, and at Metoro in Cabo Delgado.
“These initiatives join the enormous potential for generating clean energy, and the huge reserves of natural gas the country possesses”, said Nyusi. “We have a portfolio of new projects with which we intend to strengthen the existing lines”.
Among the immediate effects of the electrification of Impire are that the local health centre will no longer need to use candlelight when assisting women giving birth, and as from next year the Impire Secondary School will be able to provide night courses.
The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA), in Balama, has mobilised business people to invest in agro-processing and place flour mills in Impire. Local CTA representative, Yarife Yago, told AIM that two large companies (which he did not name) are ready to begin operations in Impire.
“We were waiting for the arrival of electricity”, he said. “Two businesses will put mills here. Energy is the main factor”.
(AIM)
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