Maputo, 13 Sep (AIM) – Mozambique’s publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, has acquired 70 percent of the shares in the Mphanda Nkuwa hydro-electric project, on the Zambezi river, in the central province of Tete.
The Mphanda Nkuwa project involves building a dam about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, and a power station that will generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity. There will also be a high voltage transmission line running for 1,300 kilometres from the Zambezi Valley to Maputo.
The construction of the dam and power station is budgeted at 5.5 billion US dollars. During the construction phase, Mphanda Nkuwa will employ about 7,000 workers, and once the power is being generated there will be 3,000 permanent jobs, 95 percent of them occupied by Mozambicans.
According to government spokesperson and deputy justice minister, Filimão Suaze, who was speaking, on Thursday, in Maputo, after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (cabinet), the approval of EDM’s shares in Mphanda Nkuwa is the first step for the project’s functioning.
“All the other subsequent steps related to this matter will come later, but it was necessary first to create this basis that serves as an umbrella for the whole exercise at the commercial level”, he said.
He insisted that the whole exercise must take place without any cost to the Mozambican state.
Last December, the international consortium headed by the French electricity company, EDF, signed an agreement with the Mozambican government to implement the hydro-electric project. The consortium also includes a second French company, TotalEnergies, and Sumitomo of Japan.
In the first phase, the consortium is responsible for mobilizing 1.3 billion US dollars, which is considered crucial for the progress of the project.
It is hoped that the construction work will be concluded by 2030.
(AIM)
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