The World Bank has described the 77,000 on-grid electricity connections achieved in the past 12 months under the Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP), as the highest for such a period in the country’s history.
Michael Gondwe, Senior Energy Specialist at the World Bank, spoke to the bank’s website (www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/) while giving an update on the on-grid component.
The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Limited implements the on-grid component whereas the Ministry of Energy runs the off-grid side. The World Bank funds the project.
Gondwe said the Corporation has improved the rate of its new connections courtesy of MEAP, as “previously ESCOM could only manage a maximum of 30,000 connections per year.”
“…MEAP is building upon and scaling up on this foundation to support the Government Malawi 2063 Vision Access Target of 50% by 2030,” he said.
The Senior Energy Specialist said both components have translated to 140,000 householders getting new connections in the past 12 months.
“So far, more than 140,000 households have been connected. This is about 3.5% of the population provided with access in the past 12 months, bringing the total access rate in Malawi to around 23%, up from 19%,” Gondwe said.
Minister of Energy, Ibrahim Matola, has since hailed the World Bank for funding MEAP thereby complementing the government’s efforts to increase access to electricity in the country.
“We need to find solutions to expedite the issues of access to electricity for most Malawians,” he told Times Television on June 24, 2024. “You have heard the percentage of those who have access to electricity [it is low]. Let me thank the World Bank who funded MEAP.”
The 2019 ambitious $100 million MEAP seeks to fast-track electrification efforts and provide electricity access to approximately 1.9 million people, constituting 9.5% of the population.
The target is to give access to 180,000 on-grid households and 200,000 Off-Grid households by the end of June 2025, translating to an additional 1.9 million people having access to electricity.
The World Bank says these additional households will bring the total access rate in Malawi to around 28% by June 2025.