Mozambique: Police disperse Mondlane supporters with gunfire, tear gas in Maputo
Mozambique: Nyusi announces abolition of electricity connection fees
7:51 CAT | 14 Dec 2020
Photo: Presidency of the Republic
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced on Friday the abolition of the fee charged for domestic connections to the national electricity grid.
Previously anyone applying for an electricity connection to their home had to pay a fee of 3,500 meticais (about 47 US dollars, at current exchange rates).
At his inauguration speech, at the start of his second term of office, in January, Nyusi had promised to abolish the connection fee. “The conditions now exist to fulfil the promise that was made”, he said, at a ceremony, in the central province of Zambezia, where he was inaugurating the connection of the administrative post of Alto Ligonha to the national grid. “As of today, 11 December, the fee charged for new electricity connections is abolished”.
“I repeat, so that it is clear”, he insisted. “As of today, the connection fee will no longer be charged. I am informing all those who are requesting new electricity connections. The client should only pay for what he consumes”.
He warned all electricity users to be on the lookout for possible acts of corruption. “There will be those who want to take advantage”, said Nyusi. “Perhaps they live off this, wanting to come round to your houses, saying you have to pay this or that. Just as they did in the case of school fees, when we said that school enrolment up to ninth grade was free of charge. They don’t accept. But the government is saying that, as from now, throughout the country nobody pays the connection fee”.
Nyusi claimed that eliminating the connection fee removes one of the greatest barriers to access to electrical power by the majority of the population. It brings immediate benefits to household income through a saving of 3,500 meticais.
The government’s target is universal access to electricity by 2030. By 2024, there should be two million new connections (benefitting more than 10 million people). By then all administrative post headquarters should be electrified, in an investment of about 500 million dollars by the government and its cooperation partners, including the World Bank and the European Union.
Through these measures, it is hope to raise the number of people with access to electricity in their homes from the current 34 per cent of the population to 64 per cent.
The electrification of Alto Ligonha required the construction of 78 kilometres of medium voltage transmission line, and eight kilometres of low voltage line. The route of the line covers five villages, and five transformer posts (out of seven envisaged) have been installed. Initially, 60 new consumers will be connected, but the number is expected to rise to 1,500.
To reach the targets mentioned by Nyusi, the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, hopes to guarantee an average of 300,000 new connections a year, according to its commercial director, Francisco Inroga.
“We shall have massive electrification campaigns”, Inroga told reporters. “We are going to meet the clients to bring them electricity”.
With the elimination of the connection fee, EDM brigades would go to each area, installing electricity meters, and connecting each house to the grid, all at zero cost to the consumer, he said.
Inroga said there are two components to ensuring universal electricity coverage – on-grid, handled by EDM, and off-grid, which refers to solar panels and isolated systems not linked to the national grid, and handled largely by the National Energy Fund (FUNAE).
He believed that the target of 2030 for universal coverage is not utopian. “It’s possible and practical”, Inroga insisted. “With the construction of new grids and with the National Electricity Grid reaching all points in the county, electrification is possible, and we shall have power for everyone”.
O posto administrativo de Alto Ligonha, no distrito de Gilé, na Zambézia, já está electrificado, com ligação à rede…
Publicado por Presidente Filipe Nyusi em Sexta-feira, 11 de dezembro de 2020
Source: AIM
Show comments
Also read
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.