Malawi’s President Bingu va Mutharika snubbed a World Bank-backed plan to acquire power from neighboring Mozambique to meet its energy demand.
Mutharika told reporters, “The deal highly favors Mozambique.” He said the main problem was that Malawi would be forced to pay $1 million per month, even if the electricity remained unused. “This is not feasible and a waste of the country’s resources and as long as I am president of this country, I won’t allow it to happen,” he added.
It had previously been announced in January that the World Bank would fund a project to source electricity from Mozambique to up Malawi’s power capacity from 285 MW to 485 MW. Malawi had until March 15 to make its final decision on the funding. Constant power outages have cost the country about $238 million yearly, according to MCA economist Alex Gomani.
Mtharika wants to tap into the country’s hydro resources for additional power. “Instead of us tapping power from Mozambique, we should invest in power plants to be built in our rivers across the country,” he said.
If Malawi is losing $238 million each year, the payment of $12 million a year to Mozambique seems a small price to pay to increase the country’s overall economic development.
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