“The goal we have assumed is to provide access to quality electricity to the entire population within the next ten years,” declared the President of the Republic Filipe Nyusi.
The head of state was speaking after laying the first stone for the construction of the Chimuara – Alto Molócuè power transmission line, in Zambézia province, center of the country, a project that he classified as structuring for the project of establishing the connection between the north and the center through a single power transmission system.
According to official data, currently only 34% of the approximately 30 million Mozambicans have access to electric energy.
Filipe Nyusi said that 185,000 Mozambicans have entered the public power grid in the last three months, as a result of 37,000 new connections to the grid of the state-owned company Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM).
The head of state believes that the increase was achieved thanks to the elimination of the connection fee decreed in December by the government.
“This evolution corresponds to irrefutable evidence of the multiplying effect of the exemption from paying the electricity tax,” he continued.
The President of the Republic pointed out that the executive’s bet on the electrification of the whole country aims at “the ultimate goal” of providing prosperity to Mozambican families and companies.
The expansion of the electricity grid will also allow for an increase in household income and the creation of job opportunities, he added.
Filipe Nyusi lamented the theft of power cables from the public grid, pointing to this practice as an obstacle to expanding access to electricity.
The high voltage line Chimuara – Alto Molócuè has, whose first stone was laid this Thursday, has a length of 367 kilometers and is budgeted at 200 million dollars, and should be ready next year.
The works funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) are part of the north-south line known as the “backbone” of electricity distribution or Cesul.
