Word Bank support for energy sector

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Word Bank support for energy sector

7:54 CAT | 29 Sep 2017

The World Bank on Thursday approved a grant of 150 million US dollars from the International Development Association (IDA) for the Mozambican energy sector.

According to a World Bank press release, the grant “will help Mozambique’s electricity utility company, EDM, improve the operational capacity of its electricity network as well as its operational efficiencies”.

It notes that Mozambique “made significant strides in expanding access to electricity in recent years, which now reaches 26 percent of the country, up from 6 percent in 2006”

But despite these improvements “EDM faces increasing issues of efficiency and reliability of its electricity. The total system losses were estimated at 26 percent in 2016, higher than the weighted average for Sub-Saharan Africa”.

Mark Lundell, the World Bank country director for Mozambique, said he was pleased with the approval of the grant “especially in these times of much need public investment in this crucial sector”.

The bulk of the aid (117 million dollars) is intended, the release says, to assist “the rehabilitation and upgrading of network infrastructure to improve security and reliability of electricity supply through the reinforcement of transmission and distribution lines, installation of additional transformers to increase capacity, and reactive compensation equipment in the cities of Maputo, Matola, Nacala, Pemba, and Lichinga.”

The rest of the money will be used to support EDM’s operational and commercial operations, the company’s capacity building and implementation support, as well as capacity building for the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Source: AIM