Energy Minister Matola urges African nations at Maputo international conference to believe in themselves
Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola has told the 9th edition of the Mozambique Mining & Energy Conference (MMEC) taking place in Maputo from Wednesday (April 26-27) that African countries need to place more trust in their own engineers when addressing issues faced within the energy sector.
The Minister — who is amongst high level delegations from Malawi, Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe — highlighted this during a round table discussion that it is time to encourage regional integration while also focusing on developing solutions from within.
He made special acknowledgment of the achievement of Malawi’s Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) for bringing back Kapichira Hydro Power Station, which lost all its 129 megawatts (MW) of power through Cyclone Ana-induced floods in 2022 — saying this demonstrates that many solutions can be found locally rather than relying solely on external expertise.
After over a year, EGENCO restored 64.4 MW from the two machines out of four that Kachipira started generating on April 5. The four machines at Kapichira generate 129.4MW, which was all lost when its dam and other infrastructure got washed away in January last year through the floods.
Restoration efforts were rolled out immediately that included redesigning a storm-resilient infrastructure as long term solution and constructing a primary cofferdam to re-divert Shire River water back to the intake to restore power generation.
Thus Matola appealed amongst the delegates for greater sharing of skills and ideas between African nations so as to create effective policies which benefit both national and regional levels.
He is quoted as saying: “Such collaborative efforts are necessary since common problems cannot be resolved independently without proper cooperation among African countries.”
In his remarks, Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy, Carlos J. Zacarias is quoted as concurring with Matola, saying the regional integration is a key towards solving energy challenges that the Southern African region is facing.
He indicated that the Malawi-Mozambique interconnector project is one way how countries in the region can work together.
In November 2021, President Lazarus Chakwera and his Mozambique counterpart, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, launched the construction works for Mozambique-Malawi power transmission interconnection project at Phombeya in Balaka District.
Construction of the interconnection project, from which Malawi is expected to be supplied with 50 megawatts of power, includes construction of 400KV Matambo substation in Tete, Mozambique and 218km of transmission lines from that source into Malawi.
The transmission lines will be 142km from Matambo substation and 76km into Malawi to Phombeya passing through Mwanza and Neno Districts — expected to be completed in 2023.
The objectives of the interconnection project include to contribute economic growth of the region through sustainable power access by integrating Malawi electricity market to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) in order to balance power deficit through regional power trading.
Among the participants in Maputo is the Minister of Mining Monica Chayang’anamuno for the conference being held at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre in Maputo — whose theme is: ‘Utilising Mozambique’s Natural Resources for Transformation & Sustainable Economic Development’
A report on https://
It further says the 2023 conference is perfect opportunity for participants to explore investment opportunities and connect with regional stakeholders including high level delegations from Malawi, Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and global investors such as Samsol, TotalErnegies, Mozambique Robins Ventures, Jindal Africa and Vulcan international among others
“The event takes place in the context of ever-shifting global resource and energy markets following the likely long-term impact of the CoVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath as well as the geopolitical crisis stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“MMEC 2023 unites key decision-makers across government and industry in which professionals are offering quality business connections to the leaders and dealmakers in the mining and energy sectors,” said the report.
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