Parliamentarian for Mulanje-Bale, Victor Musowa has asked government to consider upgrading transformers that are being planted under the Malawi Rural Electrification Program – MAREP.
Speaking today in parliament, Musowa said the current transformers are small, hence leaving a lot of people unconnected.
“500 metres leaves a lot of people out of radius. I have a problem at my constituency where the chiefs house is at 700 metres, a school at Mitawa is at 900 metres away from the transformer so we are failing to connect them.
“If they upgrade to at least 1 kilometer that could be better but the problem is that they go for cheaper transformers which is not helpful to our people” said Musowa
To address the challenges, the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances and Public Sector Reforms proposed that government should pump a lot of money into the MAREP program.
Vice Chairperson of the Committee, Francesca Masamba Theula said: “We have noted that this project is not progressing in most of constituencies due to financial challenges so we are requesting that treasury should pump in much funds to address those challenges”
The Ministry of Energy has been implementing MAREP with an aim of increasing access to electricity for the rural and peri-urban areas in order to transform the rural economies and reduce poverty amongst the rural masses and contribute to Government’s agenda on poverty reduction.
