Escom clears 95 % connections backlog—Minister

Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola yesterday told Parliament that about 95 percent of the 18 000 applications for connection to the electricity grid from 2009 have been connected.

Matola told Parliament during question time that the sole electricity supplier Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) was now dealing with applications for connection from 2011.

Responding to requests for connection to the national grid of trading centres, Matola explained that the ongoing Malawi Rural Electrification Programme (Marep) phases would eventually reach most rural trading centres in the country once more megawatts are added to the grid.

Chitipa North parliamentarian (MP) Nick Masebo appealed to the minister to reduce load shedding in Chitipa and Karonga in the evenings as this was affecting studies of secondary school students.

“In some places, if you experience two hours of continuous lights, you are lucky. This disadvantages schools in the evenings when the students go to study. Would the minister consider evening rotation so that some schools make use of electricity?”

But his request did not receive a favourable response from Matola who asked the MP to pay attention to advertisements in newspapers and the radio to stay updated on load-shedding schedules.