Maputo, 1 Dec (AIM) – Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam, on the Zambezi River in the central province of Tete, contributed two billion dollars to the Mozambican state coffers from 2007 to 2025.
HCB is 85 percent owned by the state-owned Zambezi Electric Company and 7.5 percent by the Portuguese company Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN). The company holds 3.5 percent of its own shares, while the remaining 4 percent are held by Mozambican citizens, companies, and institutions.
Majority ownership of HCB, which guarantees over 80 percent of the electricity consumed in Mozambique and also sells power to neighboring countries, reverted to the Mozambican state in 2007, marking the beginning of greater national control over energy resources.
The Cahora Bassa dam is the fourth largest in Africa. The lake behind the dam has a maximum length of 270 kilometres and a width of 30 kilometres (occupying 2,700 square kilometres), and an average depth of 26 metres. It employs about 800 workers and is one of the largest electricity producers in southern Africa.
According to President Daniel Chapo, speaking at the ceremony on Sunday marking the 18th anniversary of Mozambican ownership of the dam, HCB is not only as an infrastructure, but a symbol of sovereignty and determination.
“There is no complete independence without control of strategic resources. The ownership of Cahora Bassa is a living part of our sovereignty and continues to be our compass on the path to economic independence, and it is simple: without energy there is no development”, Chapo said.
“Cahora Bassa is not just a dam, it is a promise made to the people, a promise made to the future and to our beloved homeland of Mozambique”, he added.
Chapo took the occasion to call for reforms to the country’s energy sales model, adapting it to international best practices and considering the real value of energy resources in “hard currency” to ensure the protection of national interests.
(AIM)
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