Malawi tipped to embrace off-grid electricity source

World Bank  senior energy specialist   Michael Gondwe says off-grid access to electricity, which is simpler and cheaper to roll out, is critical in Malawi owing to the large percentage of the population located in rural areas.

In a blog posted on the bank’s website last week, he said this is in the face of low electricity access rate and limited on-grid penetration which takes longer and needs substantial capital to expand.

Said Gondwe: “The off-grid access rate has been on an exponential trajectory ever since this access sector picked up some seven years back through other similar development partner-supported access initiatives, and the Malawi Electricity Access Project [Meap] is building upon and scaling up on this foundation to support the Malawi 2063 access target of 50 percent by 2030.”

The 2019 $100 million (about K1 751 billion) Maep project aims to fast-track electrification efforts and provide electricity access to approximately 1.9 million people, representing 9.5 percent of the population.

So far, World Bank data shows that more than 140 000 households have been connected.

This is about 3.5 percent of the population provided with access in the past 12 months, bringing the total access rate in Malawi to around 23 percent, up from 19 percent.

The target is to give 180 000 on-grid households and 200 000 off-grid households access by the end of June 2025, translating to an additional 1.9 million people having access to electricity.

The additional households are expected tobring the total access rate in Malawi to around 28 percent by June 2025. 

Meanwhile, the data shows that the 70 000 on-grid connection rate achieved over the past 12 months has been the highest in the history of the country since previously Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi could only manage a maximum of 30 000 connections per year.

Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola is on record as having hailed the World Bank for funding Meapwhich he said complements government’s efforts to increase access to electricity in the country.