Maputo — The Mozambican government has 300 million US dollars available to supply electricity to 22 more districts across the country during the next five years.

However, there are currently 34 district capitals that are not connected to the national grid. Energy Minister Salvador Namburete told AIM that the government's current challenge is to mobilize financial resources to expand the electricity network to the remaining 12 districts.

Districts still lacking funds for their electrification include six in the northernmost province of Niassa, three in the sparsely populated interior of Gaza province, two in Cabo Delgado and one in Manica.

"Our plan is to bring electricity to all 34 districts that are still not on the grid, and we have funds to cater for 22 of them, granted by the government of Norway, the African Development Bank, and the Islamic Bank, totaling 300 million US dollars. There are still 12 districts for which there is not yet any funding, and the government's idea is to keep mobilizing resources for those districts", said Namburete.

In some of the 22 districts for which funds are available, preparatory work to survey and clear the land through which the transmission lines will pass is already under way. The great beneficiary of these funds is Cabo Delgado - nine of its districts are covered by the 300 million dollars, plus three in Niassa, three in Inhambane, two in Sofala, two in Namula, two in Zambezia and one in Manica.

Over the previous five years, 42 of the 128 districts in the country were connected to the national grid. At the beginning of 2010, 94 district capitals were electrified.