Project News

The first Joint Coordinating Committee meeting for the three-year Technical Cooperation project on Malawi Rural Electrification (MAREP) took place on 24th January 2007. The project aims at developing the capacity of Rural Electrification Unit in the Department of Energy to make it capable of implementing future phases of the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme starting from stages of Feasibility Studies, Detailed Design Studies, Construction Works, and Financial Management.

Chaired by the Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Resources, Mr. Charles P. Msosa, the meeting discussed, among other issues, components of the project, objectives and expected outputs. In his remarks he said the Government of Malawi greatly appreciates the assistance it continues to receive from the Japanese Government, which includes this project. He said the project has come at the right time when Malawi is striving to shift from relying on biomass as a source of energy to electricity.

Currently, biomass accounts for 93% of energy used in Malawi while electricity is only about 3% with about 6% of all households electrified.

“The Malawi Government target is to have 10% of households electrified by 2010 which translates to about 20,000 annual connections. We cannot do this single handedly and the project will go a long way in assisting us to achieve this target. We will do everything possible to reap maximum benefits out of the project,” he concluded.