Household Electrification At Impressive Rate

By Pius Rugonzibwa in Mwanza

OVER 990,000 households have been electrified countrywide in the last four years with the government targeting to cover all villages come June, 2021.

The Deputy Minister for Energy, Ms Subira Mgalu made the revelation during her tour of ...

Sengerema District at the weekend while insisting the impressive rural electrification performance will be maintained without a miss.

Addressing residents of Kome reserved area in Buchosa District Council the deputy minister said the government was determined to make sure all required supplies are manufactured domestically so as to meet the target.

She said of late, all the equipment are locally produced and the country is now capable of producing adequate electrical power meters, power cables, transformers that were previously imported.

"There will be zero tolerance in making sure all over 12,000 villages are connected come June 2021 and we will impose strict measures in the course of attaining that ambitious goal," she said.

Ms Mgalu implored all contractors tasked to undertake power connection to accomplish the task on time otherwise they risk being blacklisted for future works.

She said the government was equally committed to seeing all isolated villages in Islands and off grid areas like Kome are all supplied with reliable electricity, citing over 600 of them within Lake Victoria.

On the other hand, the deputy minister warned private power producers over charging higher tariffs with reports indicating many are even charging over 3000/- per unit.

"The government is warning all private power producers over the tendency of hiking power tariffs to the residents of those areas and this trend should come to an end because they are enjoying lots of subsidies," she noted.

Apart from charging higher tariffs private power producers used to charge connection fee ranging between 100,000/- and 200,000/- per household, revealed the deputy minister, who warned from now on connection charge should remain 27,000 and not otherwise.

Besides ongoing operations under Rural Energy Agency (REA) phase III, the deputy minister said the government has allocated 179bn/- for the implementation of densification project in nine regions, including Mwanza region.

On his side, the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) Acting Manager for Sengerema District Eng Ntwale Ndahya said out of 153 villages in the district 102 are connected with power and that 159m/- has been set aside for the rehabilitation of power infrastructures.