Malawi nears electricity accessibility strategy
Government has engaged the World Bank for possible financial support for the development of the country’s first-ever National Electrification Strategy (NES) which will improve electricity accessibility at least by early 2018.
Malawi has been using the Malawi Rural Electrification Master Plan to accelerate access to electricity, particularly in the rural areas.
According to the qualification criterion that has been uploaded on Africa’s Power Journal’s website www.esi-africa.com/tenders, the successful bidder of the project will, among others, undertake a task to identify service areas where Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi has to connect new users with investments financed through tariff revenues.
The project, among others, involves the design of the technical, financial and institutional parameters to achieve electrification targets.
The World Bank Communications Officer Zeria Banda said projects under the strategy shall be discussed with the government in due course.
She said the strategy will lay out the technical, institutional and financial pathway to achieve Malawi’s access vision.
“This project is what we call a technical assistance activity that involves various components for which funding amounts have been determined based on the work effort involved.
“Grant financing for the NES from a multi-donor trust fund has partly been approved. Procurement for the funded portion of the NES technical assistance has started and a request for expressions of interest has been issued,” Banda said.
Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Public Relations Officer Saidi Banda said the ministry will coordinate with the experts who will work on the strategy to make sure that it is in line with the National Energy Policy and other planning documents.
“The ministry will facilitate access to necessary data sources for the work and coordinate participation of suitable stakeholders within government,” Banda said.
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