President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has warned foreign investors with no capacity to complete proposed projects that there is no place for them in Malawi.
President Chakwera said this as he officially inaugurate the 60MW solar power plant in Salima District worth US$75 million which is the first of it’s kind in Malawi to connect to the national grid.
“As such, this is a blueprint for future projects in a number of aspects as it shows that Malawi is an attractive destination for private sector investment in the energy sector,” Chakwera said.
He was however concerned that many projects in the country are very slow pointing out that Malawi cannot afford to have such projects taking almost eight years for it to get done.
“More needs to be done to make such projects faster,” He said.
He then highlighted that his administration is ready to allow investors come into the country as he has ordered the ministry of energy to give him a report before next year of every power producer who showed interest to invest in the sector for the past two years and what has been done to move forward with those investors.
“So many partners are ready to help us in the energy sector and we cannot afford to be wasteful with such opportunities that comes our way,” He added.
President Chakwera further issued a warning to those that approach the country in bad faith when they have no capacity to do that.
“Iam urging them to roll out the projects or face the music because Malawians have no patience for pretenders,” He warned.
He then recommended JCM power for the job well done and congratulated Malawians for the project saying that his vision is to have many of such projects in order to end shortage of electricity in the country.
In her remarks, British High Commissioner, Ms. Fiona Ritchie, charge’ d’Affaires said that she was happy that history has been made in Malawi through the project.
She assured the President that the British government will continue supporting Malawi through Sustainable development goals and already they are assisting with a similar project in Golomoti with almost 50% of the resources.
Through the project, People around Kanzimbe area where there is the project are for the next 20 years expected to be getting MK48 million worthy Development projects as part of Corporate Social Responsibilities according to Chief Executive Officer of JM power Christian Wray.
The Salima Power Plant will be providing reliable electricity supply and it is expected to generate an average of 154 GWh of electricity annually.
The project started in 2013 during the PP government led by Dr Joyce Banda but all the work begun in ,2016 during the DPP adminstration under the leadership of Professor Arthur Peter Muthalika and it has been completed during the Chakwera led administration which according to him this is what we need if the country is to develop by having sustainable development projects.
Among those that have been involved in the project include; JCM power, African developer, Matswani, and InfraCo Africa which is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group ( PIDG).
