300 million dollars

Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, has mobilised about 300 million US dollars for implementation of the second phase of the programme “Energy for All” (also known as “ProEnergia”), which envisages adding to the national grid more than 320,000 new connections a year between now and 2024.

According to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticas”, the funds are contributions from the World Bank and from the Norwegian and Swiss governments.

According to EDM board member, Joaquim Ou-chim, the second phase of “ProEnergia” will shortly be launched. “Right now, procurement is under way, through which we intend to select the contractor, and find a company that will be responsible for guaranteeing the supply of electrical equipment”, he said. Ou-chim added that EDM expects to start the work as soon as the selection has been concluded. New consumers will be connected to the national grid continually, in order to meet the goal of guaranteeing universal access to electricity by 2030.

The first phase of ProEnergia will end within the next three months, and has allowed the connection of many households living near the grid. “In this second phase”, said Ou-Chim, “we shall step up connections, but also focus on expanding the grid”. In the first phase of ProEnergia, about 307,000 households benefitted from access to electricity within the grid, and 3,000 households from isolated systems outside the grid. To date, about 39 per cent of the population has access to electricity from the EDM grid.