Government says it wants to increase the electricity access rate to 50 percent from the current 11 percent by 2030.
Minister of Natural Resources Energy and Mining Bintony Kutsaira said this on Wednesday during the launch of National Energy Policy at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe.
He said the power sector needs a total of $2.5 billion to achieve the target which will see the country’s power generation capacity triple to 1,200 megawatts while adding 1.2 million grid connections.
Kutsaira added that the revised National Energy Policy would provide direction towards attainment of increased access to affordable, reliable efficient, sustainable and modern energy for everyone in the country.
“The old policy of 2003 was not addressing the challenges we are having now. We need reforms. For example the unbundling of Escom into two major companies, Egenco and Escom was not reflected in the 2003 policy.
“We have to make sure that the plans we are making should be in tandem with what our policy says. The policy is our guiding document on how we are going to address the power challenge,” he said.
Speaking at the event, World Bank Energy Specialist, Paul Mukiibi said the bank has been supporting Malawi to connect as much as 280,000 new connections.
“In terms of electricity supply we are now supporting the Malawi-Mozambique interconnector which is a $130million project. That money is sourced from other donors as well. As World Bank we are contributing on the Malawi side with $15million,” he said.
