EDM promises to pay off US$50 million debt to Cahora Bassa by end of year

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EDM promises to pay off US$50 million debt to Cahora Bassa by end of year

7:23 CAT | 20 Jun 2017

Lusa (File photo) / Cahora Bassa

Mozambique’s publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, currently owes over 50 million US dollars to Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company which operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi, but expects to pay the debt off by the end of the year.

Cited by the independent television station STV, the chairperson of the EDM board, Mateus Magala, said there were just a few documents left to conclude before reaching a definitive arrangement on the debt.

“The reason (for no agreement yet) is very simple”, Magala said. “We still haven’t closed some commercial matters between Cahora Bassa and EDM. So it would be unfair to bring a matter between two companies, which is not fully closed, here in detail to the public”.

“We are concluding the documents”, he insisted. “Soon, and this year, we shall implement it”.

Magala was speaking to reporters on Monday during a seminar in Maputo which discussed the future master plan for the energy sector over the next 25 years.

To guarantee universal access to energy, plus a surplus to export to other members of SADC (Southern African Development Community), he said, Mozambique needed to produce 8,000 megawatts by 2043. Achieving this will require investment of between 14 and 16 billion dollars.

Mozambique’s current electricity consumption is around 900 megawatts (not including the separate arrangements made for the MOZAL aluminum smelter on the outskirts of Maputo.

Source: AIM