Author: HARRIET KIAMA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: RESIDENTS of Kisanga Village in Talawanda Ward, Chalinze Council , Bagamoyo District, have been urged to utilise electricity service in their area by setting up small industries and other income-generating activities to improve their livelihood and contribute to the national economy.
Deputy Minister for Energy, Ms Subira Mgalu made the call recently at the launch of electrification services under Rural Energy Authority (REA) in the village.
She said that, the government planned to connect power in the entire country to enable its people to improve their livelihoods by conducting various economic activities.
“As the nation is building an industrial economy, one of our government’s strategies is to ensure that electricity projects are being implemented all over the country to enable individuals run any kind of businesses and projects,” she said.
She also explained that, in order to ensure that the project reaches many people in the area, Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) and REA first joined forces to ensure that all important infrastructure for the projects were installed.
Ms Mgalu explained that to-date, 9,113 villages have already been connected to power, noting that processes for connecting the remaining 3,000 villages had been completed.
“A total of 179bn/- has been set aside for executing the project which is expected to commence in August this year and be completed in June next year. For his part, Village Chairman, Mr Robert Herman expressed gratitude to the government and pledged to utilise the service properly.
“We are very excited to see that our village has received electricity. We are so grateful to our government and we are promising to use this opportunity to set up businesses which will benefit us as well as the council,” he said. Other villages which have been connected to electricity are Magurumatari, Malivundo, Msigi and Nyembele.
