A recent report by The Citizen has indicated that the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (Tanesco) is currently seeking USD 1.6 billion in order to rehabilitate its infrastructure and enhance the Tanzania power sector by enhancing the overall supply of its resources.
According to The Citizen, Tanesco has already begun working on a five-year Capital Investment Programme (CIP) in order to begin rehabilitating the country’s power sector, which is expected to help reduce the country’s yearly power consumption from 23 percent to as little as 20 percent by 2010.
To this end, the country’s currently erratic and unreliable transmission of electricity has been attributed to the current weak state of Tanesco’s infrastructure.
“For a long time now, there hasn’t been any major improvement of power supply infrastructure, this has resulted in a lot of power wastage, shortages and power rationing,” said the Tanzania minister of Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja, earlier this week after having submitted a ministry report to the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals.
Mr. Ngeleja went on to say that some of the contributors to the project, such as TEDAP, MCC, ADB, JICA and South Korea, had already approved a total of USD 285 million to designated to this project.
Nevertheless, the state-owned power utility is currently still seeking to acquire an additional USD 300 from various other financiers in order to pay for the restoration of its infrastructure within the designated five-year period.
According to Mr. Ngeleja, the implementation of the project in the regions of Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro would be completed under the control of TEDAP, with additional projects also being carried out in the regions of Dodoma, Iringa, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mwanza and Tanga.
Overall, the Tanzania energy and minerals minister said the total of all of the upcoming electricity projects to be implemented countrywide would cost approximately TZS 9 billion and, upon completion, the project will allow for a total of 1,116 customers to be connected to the national grid.
In the meantime, Mr. Ngeleja has said that the Rural Energy Agency (REA) has also authorized a grant of TZS 17,895 million in order to complete various projects relating to the power sector in various areas of the country that have been specifically marked as a priority.
In addition, Tanesco has also approved a package of TZS 491 million to be used in order to compensate the owners of the properties that will be affected by the power projects in Bunda, Serengeti, Ukerewe and Urambo.
