Malawi is set to increase electricity supply to at least 1,000MW from 350MW currently and seek private investors to fund for new plants in bid to eliminate power outage in the country.
Malawi’s President, Peter Mutharika said, the county’s efforts to build up its mining and manufacturing industries have been constrained by crippling power shortages that result in blackouts of as long as 16 hours a day.
“We hope that by March next year, we will add another 100MW and that will substantially reduce the blackouts.I think by 2020 we will reach a point where we no longer have the blackouts,” said Mutharika.
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Economy stability
The President also noted that the country has a number of substantial deposits of coal, uranium and cobalt that could be tapped and once there is adequate power, the mining industry is expected to take off.
“We should be able to reach 6% in two or three years if we don’t have other challenges like floods or hunger and other natural catastrophes, to sustain the country’s growth,”he said.
Mutharika further added that his government is taking steps to stabilize the economy, currency, and the kwacha, and also brought inflation down from a peak of 24% to 7%.
By increasing electricity supply the president expects the growth rate to reach as high as 5 % by the end of 2018 from 4% last year and is optimistic the shift in sentiment against emerging markets won’t have a major impact on the US $6.2 economy. The kwacha is at US $725.5 per dollar.
