World Bank hails Escom on new power connections

The World Bank has praised the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) for doubling new electricity connections to 75 000 in one year through the Malawi Electricity Access Project (Meap).

The Bretton Woods institution, which funds Meap with Escom as the implementing partner of its on-grid component, said the utility firm registered 74 800 new connections as of March 31 2024 from 35 000.

Speaking during a meeting between World Bank officials and a Malawi delegation to the 2024 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group on Thursday, the World Bank’s practice manager for energy in Eastern and Southern Africa Yadviga Semikolenova said they are impressed with Escom’s progress in providing clean energy access in the country.

She said: “Before 2023,  Escom was able to connect only 35 000 people a year to the national grid which was not fast enough. This was the best the utility provider could do, but given how fast the population has grown, it didn’t give a dent.

“The World Bank Group worked closely with the Malawi Government and the utility company to ensure it has the capacity and necessary equipment for scaling up. We are impressed that in 2023 alone, connections to the grid grew from 35 000 to over 75 000, which is no mean achievement.”

Reacting to the development, Escom chief operations officer Engineer Maxwell Mulimakwenda said the power utility feels energised by the praise from the World Bank.

He said in a note to Escom staff on Monday: “Honestly, it feels great when your efforts are being recognised. This recognition has come from the sponsor of the project, which means they have confidence in what we are doing.”

Phase one for Meap targets households located within a 500-metre radius of existing distribution transformers with the ultimate objective of connecting 180 000 households upon its completion.

Meap was launched in December 2022, but officially rolled out in February 2023 and the Ministry of Energy is currently implementing the off-grid component of the project.