By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, March 5, Mana: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa Director, Ahunna Eziakonwa has said her organization is committed to supporting more solar energy solutions in the country in order to increase access to affordable and sustainable electricity among households in the country.

She made the remarks on Monday, after touring Sitolo 80kW Solar Mini-grid in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Ndawambe in Mchinji district.

Eziakonwa said she is impressed with how community members including women from within Sitolo Mini-grid are benefiting from electricity from the solar mini-grid hence their commitment to increase the off grid electricity access in the country.

“We have seen women who have managed to move from using firewood which is hazardous to their health, they spent hours looking for firewood, but this is not the case now

Therefore, I am impressed with the transition which has been made from using firewood to using hotplates which does not have any pollution effects because when you cook with the biomass you pollute the environment but also you can get respiratory diseases form that,” Eziakonwa added.

She said an organization they were also pleased to learn how the Sitolo 80KW Solar Mini-grid has improved children performance at school as the children are able to study during the night and teachers are also able to deliver their lessons at night.

The UNDP Africa Director also applauded people of Sitolo village for conducting various businesses with the use of electricity generated at the Mini-grid.

“Energy access should not only be about lighting houses but it should also be able to improve livelihoods and that is what UNDP believes, to see a business man who is a carpenter using electricity to make his work easier, faster and come up with much bigger production and make more money for him is very impressive,” she said.

Eziakonwa said apart from supporting Malawi through the project dubbed ‘Africa Mini Grid Programme’ which UNDP launched with Global Environment Facility in 2023 at COP28 in Dubai they are eager to extend mini-grid projects in over 18 African countries.

Minister of Energy, Ibrahim Matola hailed UNDP for its commitment to supporting energy sector in the country.

“We commend UNDP for their interest to support our energy sector, currently we have 180, 000 households that have been waiting since 2016 and the UNDP support would help us to clear that backlog and also new connections which are coming,” Matola said.

Through the Sitolo 80KW Solar Min-grid, 3,640 people are accessing electricity through connections to 728 households in addition to 94 businesses powered by the mini-grid.