“The government is currently conducting
due diligence on these companies to establish those with required
competence after which they will be assigned projects to implement,” Mr
Majaliwa said at the Tanzanian High Commission here during a meeting
with Tanzanians living in Zambia on Tuesday evening.
The Premier went on to challenge
Tanzanians in Lusaka to convince their associates in the southern
African country to consider investing in Tanzania. Mr Majaliwa returned
home yesterday from Lusaka where he had gone to represent President John
Magufuli at the African Development Bank (AfDB) meeting.
“The government alone cannot implement
all projects; we need to partner with the private sector, financial
institutions and development partners to carry out such ventures,” he
explained. Regarding the investors in the electricity sector, the
premier stressed that reliable power will facilitate setting up of more
factories and enable people to engage in economic activities and
eventually boost the economy.
Mr Majaliwa noted that the Fifth Phase
Government looks forward to encourage investors to put up power
generation plants to produce power for the national grid to check power
shortages. The Premier observed that Tanzania was endowed with vast
resources to produce power namely natural gas, coal, uranium,
hydro-power, biomass and geothermal sources, all awaiting serious
tapping.
“The discovery of vast reserves of
natural gas in some parts of the country has given us more opportunities
given the fact that pipelines have been constructed to transport the
resource to Dar es Salaam for power generation, industrial production
and domestic use.
“A study is currently underway on how
the gas can be piped to homes for cooking. A pilot project has been
undertaken in Mikocheni (Dar es Salaam) and we plan to commission
another one in Mtwara,” Mr Majaliwa reported.
On the other hand, he said, the
government plans to encourage use of coal to fuel large industries
rather than using electricity or heavy furnace oil as it is the case
now. “Some of the industries are now working to convert their plants so
that they can start using coal mining of the minerals is in full gear,”
he explained.
On rural electrification, Mr Majaliwa
said over 3,000 out of 12,000 villages in the country have been supplied
with power through the Rural Energy Agency (REA). “We started with REA
Phase One and proceeded to Stage Two. We are now approaching the third
phase.
As we speak, in each ward at least four
or five villages have electricity,” the premier informed his audience.
Meanwhile, African countries have been challenged to work in
collaboration to tackle disasters caused by climate change in the
continent.
The call was made here on Tuesday during
discussions bringing together leaders from Zambia, Chad, Nigeria,
Mozambique and Tanzania shortly after the opening of the 51st Annual
General Meeting (AGM) of the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the
Mulungushi International Conference Centre. Zambian President Edgar
Lungu said his country has been striving to supply power in rural areas
but held back by shortage of rains to generate electricity.
“Shortage of rains over the past two
years has resulted into decreased water levels in Kariba Dam, which
produces about 80 per cent of power consumed in Zambia,” President Lungu
stated
. For his part, Chad President Idriss
Derby challenged the AfDB to take a centre stage in facilitating African
countries to secure capital to invest in power projects. Nigeria’
Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said the African continent
ought to put more efforts on development projects as it seeks solutions
to environmental degradation.
The Prime Minister of Mozambique, Mr
Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, said it was high time countries in the
continent created a power pool to supply countries with low generation
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