Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared on Thursday that the effort made by the government to bring electricity to the homes of all 30 million Mozambicans seeks to stimulate development, and ensure that families can prosper through the productive use of electrical power.
Nyusi was speaking at the inauguration of a new medium voltage electricity transmission line in the Itepela administrative post, in Ngauma district in the northern province of Niassa. This, he said, was part of the government’s efforts to bring electricity to all Mozambicans by 2030.
The electrification project in Itepela contains 23 kilometres of medium voltage transmission line, a network of 14 kilometres of low voltage line, and four transformer posts. It also includes 94 public illumination lampposts. Among the first establishments to be connected to the Itepela grid are two flour mills, seven shops, two government buildings, a school and a health centre.
Nyusi stressed that Itepela lies between a main road, and the railway to the provincial capital, Lichinga. “What is produced and processed in Itepela, now with electricity, can be taken to market”, he said. “The nearest market is Lichinga, but there is also Mandimba, and Malema district in the neighbouring province of Nampula”.
Nyusi called on all Mozambicans to guarantee the advance of the national electrification programme. To this end, he urged greater vigilance and protection of the equipment installed, and denunciation of all cases of destruction and theft of electrical materials.
Citizens, he added, should also denounce all clandestine electricity connections, and any electricity workers who try to extort payment for any new connections that should be free of charge.
For his part, Marcelino Gildo, the chairperson of the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, said that the energy strategy for the next 25 years, in the transmission and distribution components, is budgeted at 34 billion US dollars.
The current focus of EDM, he added, is the “Energy for All” programme, which envisages providing all Mozambicans with power in their homes by 2030.
Currently about 40 per cent of the population has electricity. 36 per cent are covered by the national grid run by EDM, while four per cent obtain power from solar panels and other alternative sources provided by the National Energy Fund (FUNAE)
