Africa-Press – Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera has described the current incessant power outages and fuel scarcity as a “temporary headache.” Chakwera, speaking a while ago when he presided over the official opening of the 2022 Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) in Lilongwe, Chakwera said following the meeting he held with energy gurus in the country, government has already secured 28 million US dollars (over MK28 billion) facility from local banks towards importing more fuel into the country.
Chakwera also said government is also in pursuit of another 50 million-dollar facility for the same. “I know that the current shortage of fuel is affecting manufacturing, business, work, and domestic life and I want to assure you that we are seized of this matter to ensure that there is product in service station in the short term, while we work on long term forex issues that are at the root of this problem,” said the president.
In the same vein, Chakwera said his government is also fighting a culture of dysfunction and disorganisation at EGENCO, Escom and the Power Market Limited (PML) which are responsible for generation, and distribution of electricity but whose dysfunctionality culminated into a national blackout two weeks ago.
Chakwera also disclosed that he had hosted officials from Ministry of Energy, MERA and NOCMA at Kamuzu Palace past midnight last night, stressing that today, the officials from the three institutions are working around the clock to thwart the current fuel scarcity, following his instruction.
According to Chakwera, he has also instructed the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) to prioritize fuel procurement in the allocation of any forex which the country is securing.
“So as we speak, we have over 6 million liters being brought into the country, while at the same time, we have doubled the daily distribution of the product we already have in our reserves to ease the burden, and I want to thank Malawians for their patience as we attend to this problem as a matter of urgency,” he added.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
