Mozambique: Government appoints new chairman for state-owned power utility EDM

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Mozambique: Government appoints new chairman for state-owned power utility EDM

2:04 CAT | 23 Jul 2024

File photo: EDM

The Mozambican government today removed Marcelino Gildo Alberto from the position of chairman of the board of directors of the state-owned Eletricidade de Moçambique (EDM), appointing Joaquim Henriques Ou-Chim in his place.

The decision was taken at the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers today, according to a statement released by the body this morning, detailing only the dismissal of Marcelino Gildo Alberto and the appointment of the current executive administrator for the electrification area to lead the public company.

Lusa reported in May that EDM recorded profits for the third consecutive year in 2023, but that they fell 7.5% this year compared to 2022, to 4,820 million meticais (€70.3 million).

According to data from EDM’s report and accounts, the company’s turnover grew 14% in 2023, to 53,170 million meticais (€775.6 million), and the level of losses, resulting “mainly from energy theft”, was reduced by two percentage points, to 26% of total production.

“This reduction, the sharpest in the last four years, had a significant impact on the increase in the company’s revenue and responds to the challenge established by the Government, to improve operational excellence,” the EDM information reads.

The profits of the state electricity company, which had more than doubled in 2022 to 5,220 million meticais (€76.1 million), registered a drop in 2023.

“The results achieved last year demonstrate that, as we work to achieve our objectives, we perfect our operating model, in a volatile and uncertain context, conditioned by macroeconomic indicators and climate change that, cyclically, compromise all our efforts and investments,” acknowledged the president of the EDM board of directors Marcelino Gildo Alberto in the document.

Even so, the company stated that it continues to record “losses resulting from the vandalisation of electrical infrastructures and energy theft”.

“These acts delay the achievement of our goals, especially universal access to energy, until 2030. Therefore, we reiterate the call for community vigilance and reporting of these illicit practices. On the EDM side, we will continue to be relentless in the face of the involvement of workers in these acts or any other form of corruption, whose treatment, in relation to their perpetrators, will observe the maximum of zero tolerance,” warned the then chairman.

Source: Lusa