By Wezzie Gausi:
The European Union (EU) on Monday gave the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) €2.5 million (about K3 billion) to support and boost the energy sector in the country.
The money has come under the EU Twinning Project which aims at implementation of national development strategies in line with EU standards, contributing to the National Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking during the official launch of the project, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola said the EU-Mera Twinning Programme has been designed to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of Mera in the next two years.
He said the programme has come at the right time when Mera is realigning itself to the M2063 aspirations for modernisation and industrialisation of the economy, with the energy sector playing a central role.
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“As you may all appreciate, energy is life for any economy and regulating energy means regulating the country’s economy. I am therefore very excited that we have this programme in Mera and look forward to its fruits.
“I will ensure my team at the ministry closely follow progress for the programme and the Secretary for Energy here present will champion the monitoring of this project under my ministry,” Matola said.
EU Ambassador to Malawi Rune Skinnebach said the twinning partnership supports institution building in four ways.
He said the EU has for a long time been involved in the energy sector, complementing Malawi’s ongoing market reform and institution building.
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“Through this funding, there will be peer to peer public sector expertise, providing assistance for the achievement of results jointly agreed between Mera and EU.
“As a matter of fact, this twinning project in the energy sector in Africa brings together the Italian and Slovakian energy regulators under a team of Europe Initiative to help the energy sector in African countries,” Skinnebach said.
Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results.
The Malawi Government established Mera in 2008 as a Sector Wide Energy Regulator following the enactment of the Energy Regulations Act and other Energy laws in 2004.
The laws mandate Mera to regulate the energy sector in Malawi in a fair, transparent, efficient and cost-effective manner for the benefit of the Malawi economy using various regulatory tools and regulations to guide its operations.
