Power meeting Jan 29

“Tanzania needs to overcome inhibiting infrastructure challenges such as interrupted power supply,” says a statement by the African Press Organisation. PHOTO|FILE 

By Veneranda Sumila, The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Saturday, January 11  2014 at  02:00

In Summary

• “Tanzania needs to overcome inhibiting infrastructure challenges such as interrupted power supply,” says a statement by the African Press Organisation

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will host the first ‘powering Africa’ meeting this month. The aim of the event is to promote dialogue for public, private and international energy partners. The meeting will take place on January 29-31.

An enabling environment that supports sustainable economic growth will also be discussed.

“Tanzania needs to overcome inhibiting infrastructure challenges such as interrupted power supply,” says a statement by the African Press Organisation

According to the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Programme, there is a serious infrastructure challenge in Tanzania’s power sector.

The country needs about 2 gigawatts of new generation capacity to keep pace with the demand.

As the World Bank agrees to support Tanzania to strengthen its business environment, international investors flock to the country in search of credible partners, a deeper understanding of the requirement of entering the market and an eagerness to do business

According to the International Energy Agency, sub-Saharan Africa will require more than $300 billion in investment to achieve universal electricity access by 2030.

The US government’s “Power Africa” initiative, which includes Tanzania as one of the six priority countries for investment, will commit more than $7 billion over the next five years to support African countries in their goals to increase power generation.

“The opportunities are therefore massive for Tanzania to transform its economy, create thousands of jobs and empower the youth of the nation to take the East African region profitably forward through to 2030,” says the statement.