Govt told to speed up electricity projects

Members of Parliament (MPs) have asked government to speed up projects under Malawi Rural Electrification Project (Marep).

According to Nkhotakota Central Member of Parliament who is from Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Peter Mazizi, the projects will promote the small scale businesses in rural areas across the country.

Mazizi gave an example of an electricity project in his area which was included in Marep phase 8 some years back but up to date it has not been completed.

“I can say that in our constituency we were given three centres to be electrified namely roundabout, Pendwe and Mpondagaga. These were three areas to be electrified.

“We were hoping that according to Marep that by January phase 8 will be done. We were hoping that the job now would have been done but as I am speaking at Pendwe and Mpondagaga the work is yet to kick start,” Mazizi said.

According to Mazizi, he asked the minister responsible to explain why the work is yet to begin and he was told that the ministry will find out and respond to him.

“There were speculations that the two centres may be delayed to be electrified because of politics whereby one chief was implicated to be supporting opposition party.

“I wanted the Minister responsible to explain on this because when an area is electrified various entrepreneurial activities become possible,” Mazizi added.

This is coming at a time when the country is experiencing rampant blackouts with many household not having power for over 25 hours.