Nyusi has not announced new Energy Minister so far – AIM report

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Nyusi has not announced new Energy Minister so far – AIM report

5:31 CAT | 29 Sep 2016

Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Pedro Couto, left the government on Thursday to take up the position of chairperson of the Board of Directors of Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river.

A brief statement from the office of President Filipe Nyusi in the morning announced that Nyusi was relieving Couto of his duties as Minister. As normal with such dispatches, no reason was given for the President’s decision.

But at much the same time, the HCB Public Relations Office issued a statement announcing that, at an extraordinary meeting of HCB shareholders earlier in the day, Couto was elected chairperson of the company for the period 2016-2018.

He replaces Paulo Muxanga who became chairperson of HCB in 2007, immediately after majority ownership of the company passed into the hands of the Mozambican state. Previously, the Portuguese state had owned 82 per cent of the shares in HCB, with just 18 per cent in the hands of Mozambique,

But when Portugal sold most of its shares to Mozambique in 2007, the positions were reversed – – the Mozambican state owned 85 per cent of HCB, and Portugal 15 per cent. In the ensuing election of a new board, Muxanga became the first ever Mozambican chairperson of the largest hydro-electric undertaking in the country.

The purchase of the Portuguese shares was financed by a loan of 700 million US dollars from the banks CA Lyon and BPI (Portuguese Investment Bank), to be repaid out of HCB’s profits. In 2015, Muxanga told reporters that HCB had already repaid 72 per cent of the loan, and expected to complete the repayment ahead of the contractual deadline of December 2017.

Couto thus inherits a financially healthy undertaking. The main task he will face is negotiating the construction of a second power station at Cahora Bassa. The existing power station, on the south bank, can generate a theoretical maximum of 2,075 megawatts. A second station, on the north bank, could add a further 1,250 megawatts.

So far, Nyusi has not announced a replacement for Couto at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Source: AIM