President Dr Lazarus Chakwera together with President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique laid a foundation stone for the construction of a 400kv Mozambique-Malawi Transmission Project which aims at increasing electricity demand in Malawi.

President Chakwera said apart from providing room for Malawi to tap more and export power into the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), the transmission line will also provide a safe and reliable interconnection of power which will enable initial supply of 50 Megawatts (MW) power from Mozambique to Malawi.

“Malawi and Mozambique were badly hit by the Cyclone Ana early this year. The cyclone damaged Kapichira Hydropower Station resulting in the whole installed capacity of 129MW being taken out of the system thereby exacerbating power deficit in Malawi,” explained Chakwera.

Chakwera added that, Electricity Supply Cooperation of Malawi (ESCOM) has joined hands with Electricity Development of Mozambique (EDM) to increase the power supply which Malawi will benefit with an extra 60MW from Mozambique coming up with a total of 110MW to be transmitted through the line.

Commenting on the matter, President Nyusi described the interconnection project as a bond of strengthening relations of friendship, brotherhood and also solidarity between the two countries.

The project is founded by World Bank, KFW, and the European Union and is expected to create 1000 jobs to both Malawians as well as Mozambicans.