President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika says government will heavily invest in the energy sector to enable Malawians access electricity in the country.
Professor Mutharika made the remarks during the official handover and commissioning of the upgraded Nkula A hydropower and celebrations for the successful completion of Millennium Challenge Compact in Malawi.
President Mutharika said the energy sector is key to Malawi’s economic growth that is why government is determined to end electricity challenges in the country.
Said Mutharika: “United States has invested in the most critical component of our economy. We are not stopping here. My Government is determined to continue investing in the energy.”
On the other hand, president Mutharika admitted that Malawi is facing energy challenges because the previous government neglected the sector, adding that in the wake of the climate change, Malawi was moving away from over reliance to hydropower and diversifying to solar, coal and wind energy.
“For the past 50 years, we never invested in the energy sector. We never invested for the growing population of our country. Our energy laws were too ligid for the reforms in the energy sector. But we are changing this,” said the Malawi leader.
Speaking earlier, Vice president for Millenium Challenge Compact Jean Hauch commended government for the successful completion of the compact. Hauch said they are proud that they have established the foundation for a modern power system in Malawi.
She said apart from the project increasing capacity in the power sector management , it has also increased skills for workers and opportunities created by policy reforms.
“This MCC compact with the Government of Malawi represents the first time MCC has worked with a country partner to design and implement a compact focused solely on the power sector. From the start, this effort acknowledged that, to improve the availability, reliability, and quality of the nation’s power supply, it would require more than just modern infrastructure. It would also require policy and institutional reforms, to change how the sector worked, as well as efforts to protect the resources that drive power generation here in Malawi, the rivers.
“In the energy sector, no one investment alone can drive growth and sustainable change. It was vital to make connections between the three compact projects, to link the Infrastructure Development, the Power Sector Reform, and the Environmental & Natural Resource Management elements. Taken together, these components are much more than the sum of their parts. The synergy of the work achieved through these projects isgenerating a brighter future for Malawi,” she said.
Millennium Challenge Account Malawi started implementing programmes in the country in 2013. As it is now the compact has come to an end until December this yearwhen it is going to be decided whether Malawi should be given another compact. The theme for the function was powering Malawi’s future to stimulate economic growth.