- Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, yesterday advocated access to electricity for the entire population in the next ten years, with a view to speeding up the fight against poverty and promoting the country’s social and economic development.
The Mozambican head of state was speaking after laying the first stone for the construction of the Chimuara – Alto Molócuè power transmission line, in the province of Zambézia, central Mozambique, a project he classified as structuring the project to establish the link between the north and the centre through a single power transmission system.
Only 34 percent of the approximately 30 million Mozambicans have access to electric power.
Filipe Nyusi said that 185,000 Mozambicans had been connected to the public power grid over the last three months, as a result of 37,000 new connections to the system by state company, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM).
The head of state believes that the increase was achieved thanks to the elimination of the connection fee decreed in December by the government.
“This evolution corresponds to irrefutable evidence of the multiplying effect of the exemption from paying the fee,” he said. He noted that the government’s focus on the electrification of the entire country was aimed at “the ultimate goal” of providing prosperity to Mozambican families and businesses.
The expansion of the electricity grid will also allow household incomes to rise and create job opportunities, he added. Filipe Nyusi regretted the theft of electricity cables from the public grid, pointing to this practice as a hindrance to the expansion of access to electricity.
The Chimuara – Alto Molócuè high voltage line, whose first stone was laid on Thursday, has a length of 367 kilometres and is budgeted at US$200 million (167.9 million euros), and should be ready next year.
The work, funded by the African Development Bank, is part of the north-south line known as the “backbone” of electricity distribution or Cesul.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
