Angola's Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, said on Thursday, 10 September, that approximately half of Angola's population still lacks access to electricity, while assuring that public investment is being directed to address the shortfall, according to Lusa.
"The priority is the electrification of the territory precisely because we have half of Angolans without access," the minister said in an interview with TPA, Angola's public broadcaster.
João Baptista Borges pledged that "all public investment is directed at covering those needs".
The minister cautioned, however, that the country cannot afford to waste its current surplus power generation capacity, arguing that the excess could be channelled to meet the needs of other sectors of the economy and society.
"The country must be able to transform the surplus production capacity it has and attend to other needs — not only of the electricity sector, but of other areas of social life," he said.
According to the minister, the export of surplus energy could represent a significant opportunity for Angola, driven by private sector investment in the construction and operation of transmission lines.
"The export of that energy can bring this advantage to the country, secured entirely by private investment — that is, the construction of the lines and the operation of those lines by the private sector," he explained.
João Baptista Borges also highlighted the potential of planned interconnections with Namibia, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which could allow Angola to export energy when it has surpluses and, in the future, import electricity should domestic demand outpace production capacity.
"Tomorrow, these interconnections we are planning with Namibia, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo can also be a road in the opposite direction. Today we have a surplus; tomorrow we may have a deficit, and one of the countries to which we are connected may also have the possibility of selling, of exporting energy to our country," he said.
The minister explained that these cross-border links would equally serve as a foundation for the creation of a regional energy market, enabling the commercialisation of electricity among countries across Central and Southern Africa.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/?p=539957
