The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Limited says a new chapter is opening at the utility, with its Board setting firm policy targets aimed at improving service delivery, strengthening operational discipline and rebuilding public trust.
Board Chairperson Alfred Nhlema says the new Board has placed operational performance at the centre of its governance agenda, marking a decisive shift from past approaches that failed to translate policy decisions into consistent service improvements.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Board orientation workshop at Mpemba Training Centre in Blantyre, Nhlema acknowledged that long-standing operational challenges -- particularly inadequate mobility and technical resources -- have continued to undermine service reliability and delay fault clearance across the country.
However, he said the Board has now elevated operational performance to a top strategic and enterprise risk, subject to direct and continuous Board-level oversight.
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"This Board has made it clear that service delivery is no longer a secondary issue. Fault response times, maintenance backlogs and network reliability will now receive the same attention as financial and governance matters," Nhlema said.
As part of this renewed direction, the Board has realigned ESCOM's institutional priorities to ensure frontline operations are properly supported.
Nhlema said this includes ring-fencing resources for mobility, fast-tracking the procurement of critical spares, and shifting the organisation away from reactive fault management towards a preventive maintenance culture.
"The message is simple: if we want better outcomes, we must properly equip the people who restore power on the ground," he said.
The new Board has also placed accountability at the heart of its policy framework. Nhlema said executive and management performance will now be directly linked to measurable service outcomes.
Performance contracts will explicitly tie leadership evaluation to fault restoration times, network uptime and customer responsiveness, ensuring that responsibility for service delivery is clearly owned at every level.
"This Board will not manage by assumption. Performance will be measured, tracked and acted upon," Nhlema said.
Beyond policy pronouncements, Nhlema stressed that execution will define the Board's success. ESCOM, he said, is moving to improve internal discipline by clarifying priorities, reducing bureaucratic delays and empowering management to act decisively within clear governance controls.
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A comprehensive performance monitoring framework has been approved to drive consistent improvements across all regions.
This includes Board-approved service standards for fault response and restoration times, network availability and customer complaint resolution. A balanced scorecard, with strong emphasis on operational performance and customer experience, will be used to assess regional performance.
Performance contracts will be cascaded from the Chief Executive Officer to regional managers, directly linking accountability to fault resolution timelines and customer service outcomes.
To support real-time decision-making, ESCOM will also introduce standardised dashboards and reporting systems, providing visibility on faults, restoration performance, fleet availability and customer feedback.
Nhlema said the Board will conduct regular operational reviews and enforce consequence management mechanisms to ensure underperformance is addressed promptly, while effective practices are scaled across the Corporation.
"In essence, this Board is determined to ensure that governance decisions translate into tangible operational improvements," he said.
"Our objective is to restore service reliability and rebuild public confidence through measurable, visible outcomes that customers can feel."
