By Abel Ikilioni

Blantyre, August 15, Mana: Parliamentary Committee on Public Assurance and Public Sector Reforms recently conducted a tour of Malawi Rural Electrification Programme, (MAREP 9) in two districts of the southern region and one in the central region.

In an interviews with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Chairperson for the Committee, Noel Lipipa said the committee embarked on the tour to Dedza at Kaname, Mulanje at Kasankha and Chanje in Monkey Bay, Mangochi district to appreciate progress on MAREP 9 programme.

“We are impressed with the work done in all the areas we have inspected” Lipipa said.  

He said although things were progressing well, there were still some challenges such as a disconnect between MAREP and ESCOM and that a solution to the problem was to hold a meeting involving ESCOM, MAREP and the parliamentary committee.

He said such a meeting would ensure that the objective of MAREP is achieved and that all the challenges that existed in MAREP 9 should be ironed out.

According to Lipipa, the committee also observed that communities do not know that even grass thatched houses can also be connected to the grid.

“They are not supposed to do wiring in their houses, all they have to do is to apply to ESCOM and then they will get the power.” He said.

Deputy Director for Rural Electrification in the Ministry of Energy, Francisco Chingoli said the project is running smoothly with an initial target of 460 centres to benefit 46 000 households.

He said at least the Ministry has already completed and commissioned 160 sites which translate to 16 000 households, hoping that the phase would finish by the end of August.

“We have reached our targets; we are now working hard to make sure that we should also improve in some of the areas that we had bottlenecks and we intend to revitalize the Ndawala 2 Project to connect a lot of households,” Chingoli said.

He however pointed out some of the bottlenecks that MAREP 9 faced, citing scarcity of forex as one of the main challenges, adding the Reserve Bank of Malawi always intervened in such situations.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Energy will soon embark on MAREP 10 with a target of about 700 sites which translates to 70 000 households benefitting from the project.

MAREP 9 had a budget of K62 billion while MAREP 10 is pegged at K105 billion.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) Stephen Romasi, from Kasankha Village in Traditional Authority Nankumba in Mangochi expressed gratitude to government for extending electricity to his area.

“Our women were walking long distance to a maize mill. But now we have power within our locality.”  

Concurring with Romasi, Ellena Daniel said she was overjoyed to have electricity in her home, noting that electricity would improve her livelihood.