…brings home over MK500 Billion Deal
By Jonah Phiri in Dar es salaam, Tanzania
President Lazarus Chakwera has told an energy indaba in Tanzania that he has doubled access to electricity in Malawi during his first term of office from 12 percent to 25 percent presently.
Chakwera has also expressed optimism that his government maintains an ambitious target of connecting 75 percent of Malawians to electricity by 2030.
The Malawi leader shared the success story during the signing of the $300 million (over K500 Billion) Energy Compact for Malawi financed by the World Bank.
“Today, before the conclusion of my first term, I am proud to say that our goal has already been achieved, for when I came into office, only 12 percent of Malawians had access to electricity, and today that number has now more than doubled to 25 percent,” he said.
Chakwera lamented that over half a century of independence in which Malawi has had five democratically elected governments, the majority of Malawians still live in the dark.
For such a reason, Chakwera recalled that when the Malawian people elected him to be their Sixth President, four and a half years ago, he vowed that by the time he left office, he would leave more Malawians connected to electricity.
“This was no doubt an ambitious goal and I knew that it would not be easy,” said Chakwera.
He said within two years of his administration, Malawi suffered a severe setback when the country was hit by Cyclones Ana and Gombe, which severely damaged the Kapichira Power Plant and plunged one third of the few Malawian homes that were connected to the grid back into the dark.
But this setback notwithstanding, Chakwera said as a leader, he knew that his vision to see the light shine on Malawi was the right one, taking into account that electricity was the key to unlocking economic and wealth-creating opportunities for Malawian youth and women.
Chakwera also said that he was pretty aware that electricity would power agricultural production by bringing produce to value-adding factories, power the mining sector and also power the tourism sector.
“We knew that electricity would power our job creation drive, enabling our youth to run their printing shops, barbershops, hair salons, internet cafes, maize mills, and so many more,” added the president.
Chakwera left the country on Monday, January 27, 2025, for Dar es Salaam to join more than 1,000 other participants—with strong representation from the private sector at the summit.
It is expected that the Heads of State and Government will commit to ambitious reforms and actions to expand access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030.