By Malawi Exclusive
Malawian President, His Excellency, Dr Lazarus MacCathy Chakwera, and his Mozambican counterpart, President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, officially launched the Mozambique-Malawi Power Interconnection Project at Phombeya in Balaka.
The project will involve the construction of a 218-kilometre 400 KV High Voltage Alternating Current (AC) transmission line from Matambo in Tete Province in Central Mozambique, past the Malawian border in Mwanza and all the way to Phombeya, Balaka. The project is expected to be completed by 2023.
Malawi-Mozambique Power Interconnection project which starts at Matambo in Mozambique, will cost $127m, out of which the Malawian side has been allocated $35m which will be funded by Malawi Government, World Bank and KFW.
This power interconnection project is vital as it is expected to contribute to economic growth through sustainable power access by integrating Malawi electricity market to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAAP), this will address power deficit in some nations through regional power trading.
Soon after arrival at Sunbird Waterfront Hotel in Salima today, Dr Lazarus Chakwera said that both Malawi and Mozambique are determined to deepen their cooperation in various sectors including trade, energy and transport. Accentuating on the current affable relationship between two countries, Dr Lazarus Chakwera gleefully described the two nations as more than neighbours now, they are siblings.
Some political analysts have reported that Malawi has not enjoyed a healthy bilateral relations with its neighbour, Mozambique right from one party epoch when there were strained relations between Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, and his then Mozambican counterpart, Samora Michel. Former Malawi High Commissioner to Mozambique, Martin Kansichi, when quizzed by one of the media houses about the previous relationship status between the two nations, he revealed that bilateral relations between the two nations were not good, the relationship was sour due to political reasons. The visit by Nyusi is surely the genesis of a new chapter in as far as bilateral relations between the two countries are concerned.