Maputo — The Mozambican government has mobilised about 280 million US dollars from its cooperation partners to implement the programme “Energy for All”, intended to provide electrical power to every household in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Ludovina Bernardo, gave the figure at a press briefing on Tuesday, after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet).
She added that this year 400,000 households will, for the first time, be linked to the electricity grid.
Since December 2020, when the government abolished the fee for domestic electricity connections, there has been a sharp increase in the number of citizens requesting electrification of their homes.
“There’s a lot of support from the public. They want access to electricity”, said Bernardo, who recalled that the government’s Five Year Programme for the period 2020-2024 set a target for increasing the number of people with electricity in their homes from 34 to 64 per cent of the population.
All the activities envisaged under the “Energy for All” programme, “are going ahead smoothly”, she added.
President Filipe Nyusi launched the programme in November 2018. The ambitious target of ensuring universal access to electricity by 2030 will require the government to mobilise about six billion dollars.
The Council of Ministers also approved a pardon of fines owed by companies that have failed to pay their contributions to the National Social Security Institute (INSS), and a reduction of the interest on overdue INSS payments.
This handout to employers, and to self-employed people enrolled in the social security system, is justified as part of the package of measures to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.