By Chisomo Phiri
In its effort to increase the access to electricity in the country,the government through Ministry of Energy on Friday unveiled a first ever off grid market development fund, dubbed Ngwee Ngwee Ngwee which is under the Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP)with support from the World Bank.
Speaking when unveiling the project at Sunbird Capital Hotel in Lilongwe, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola said the 20 Million US dollars fund, will enable companies that can provide electricity using solar access loans, with a vision of reaching an ambitious 100 % access to electricity in the country by 2030.
He said through the project, the companies will have a role of transmitting power to rural areas which ESCOM cannot reach.
The minister pointed out that they anticipate an additional 350 megawatts from off grid companies.
Matola disclosed that the fund will provide loans to eligible off-grid solar companies up to USD 14 million as working capital to expand their operations and speed up procurement and importation of the off-grid solar home systems.
“The project will also offer Result Based Grants up to USD 5.5 million to provide end-user with subsidies to close the affordability gap of rural customers that cannot afford solar home systems at the current commercial prices.
“It will also create a Market Catalyst Fund (MCF) of USD 500,000 to support small-scale off-grid market-based transformative solutions to scale up the renewable energy transition, particularly by engaging the local off-grid solar companies in Malawi.
“The idea is to make these local off-grid Solar companies grow to the extent of being able to access capital on the market for the expansion of their businesses,” he said.
On his part, country manager for the World Bank Hugh Ridell, said he has hope that the fund will have a transformative impact on the country’s energy sector.
