President Nyusi inaugurates electrification of Macuse

Maputo, 27 Jul (AIM) – President Filipe Nyusi on 27 July inaugurated the connection to the national electricity grid of the Macuse administrative post in Namacurra district, in the central province of Zambezia.

The electrification of Macuse cost the Mozambican state 124 million meticais (about US$1.9 million, at the current exchange rate). The main work was the construction of a medium voltage transmission line between Namacurra town and Macuse over a distance of 50 kilometres.

The project envisages 2,000 connections to the grid of Macuse homes, companies and other social and economic undertakings. So far 800 connections have been made.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President Nyusi stressed that electrification is one of his government’s top priorities and reiterated the government’s commitment to ensure “electricity for all” by 2030.

“Our operational slogan is electricity for all”, he declared, recalling that in his first term of office (2015-2019) the government completed the electrification of all district capitals. Now it was electrifying the administrative posts “as part of our agenda for the economic transformation of the country in this cycle of governance”.

Electrification, he said, is a requirement imposed by industrialisation, population growth, and urbanisation. This year, President Nyusi added, electricity coverage should reach 52 per cent of the population, compared with 44 per cent in 2021.

Macuse is regarded as a strategic area for economic development, and there are ambitious plans for a deep water port and a new railway linking the port to the Moatize coal basin in Tete province. The project was supposed to be launched in 2021, but nothing has happened so far, supposedly because of the need for “restructuring”. Macuse port was initially designed to transport coal, in the days when it was imagined that Mozambique would export 100 million tonnes or more of coal a year, a forecast that now seems unrealistic.

President Nyusi said that, with electricity now available, other investments can be promoted in Macuse, in agriculture, tourism, fisheries and agro-processing, that would bring “positive changes to the life of the population”. He called for diversification of production, which would help meet the rising cost of living.

Later in the day, President Nyusi inaugurated the electrification of the Namanjavira administrative post, in Mocuba district, and a complex of silos and warehouses to store agricultural produce in Milange, on the border with Malawi.