Avoid bureaucracy in rural electrification - JPM

By James Kamala

President John Magufuli has ordered the Tanzania Electric Supp-ly Company (TANESCO) and Rural Energy Agency (REA) to shun unnecessary bureaucracy in connecting village households with electricity and charge cheap power tariffs.

The President gave the order on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam when launching Kinyerezi II Power Plant which will produce 240 MW when complete in a few months. He said that currently, more than four thousand villages are connected to electricity and his government is working tooth and nail to make sure all villages are connected by 2020.
"Research shows that only 36 percent Tanzanians are connected to electricity, and the rest rely on charcoal and firewood which have some negative health implications and causes environmental degradation" he said.
President Magufuli also directed the Ministry of Energy to reduce power tariffs to the lowest prices possible as the nation is embarking on simple sources of power which is natural gas, hydroelectricity and the like, than previously where expensive sources of power like fuel were used together with dubious contracts which affected end users