2 February 2008
Maputo — The first phase of Mozambique's Low Cost Rural Electrification Plan will cost 117 million US dollars, according to Energy Minister Salvador Namburete.
Presenting the plan in Maputo to potential donors and funding agencies, Namburete said that 117 million dollars is the sum the publicly-owned electricity company EDM needs to spend to extend the electricity grid to a further 117 administrative posts and villages, 193 schools, 66 health posts and about 82,000 households (around half a million people).
The first part of the plan is broken into nine provincial packages. The only province left out is Sofala, which has a higher rural electrification coverage than anywhere else in the country.
The complete plan is much more ambitious and is costed at 800 million dollars.
Cited in Saturday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Namburete told the meeting that electricity "is a catalyst for development and for improving the living conditions of our people".
But currently only ten per cent of the Mozambican population has access to electricity and most of this segment of the population lives in the cities and towns. Namburete said that in the countryside, the figure drops to about two per cent.
"Our efforts should be concentrated on speeding up rural electrification, using all available sources of energy, so that an increasing number of Mozambicans may have access to electricity", declared the minister.
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