ENERGY MINISTER PLEDGES TO FREE ESCOM

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Atupele Muluzi has said his ministry will make sure that Malawi Electricity Supply Corporation (ESCOM) is free from Political interference and promote the public private partnership PPP in the sector to upgrade transmission and distribution system.

Muluzi said this on Monday when he toured Nkula hydro power station.

In his speech, Muluzi said the country’s economy has not been growing due to inability of ESCOM to produce enough energy to drive the country’s production machinery because politicians dominated in the operations of the corporation.

“You can imagine that at present only nine percent of Malawians have access to electricity, this is negatively impacting on the growth of the economy,” said Muluzi.

On his part, ESCOM chief executive officer John Kandulu said the sole electricity provider is committed to improve its services in order to maximize revenue.