President Peter Mutharika recently met with a Chinese consortium to discuss the details of the planned 300MW Kammwamba coal-fired power plant.

Malawi News Agency reported that Mutharika and his delegations met the Chairperson of the China Energy Engineering Group (CEEC) the parent company of the China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Company; Wang Jianping and directors of the company, who have been tasked with constructing the plant.

“We need the extra energy as soon as yesterday. That’s why we’re very serious about this project. If we have their extra wattage from this project, our economy will perform much better than now,” Mutharika emphasised.

He briefed the company that he was glad that his government had met all the 14 conditions that were set by the financiers AXIM Bank of China for Malawi to access the loan for the project, which will help to provide electricity in the country.

Kammwamba plant to boost economy

Mutharika told the gathering that Malawi is doing well economically but he was certain that once the Kammwamba plant is up and running, Malawi’s economy will grow even much faster. Read more: Malawian energy minister switches on Msosa Power Line

Mutharika said the shortage of electricity to industries is one of the major challenges Malawian companies and citizens are facing and the situation is slowing down growth.

“These companies are able to make reasonable profits but they dig more on production costs to access other forms of energy imagine, how productive would they be once this project is finalised,” he noted.

For his part, CEEC chairman Wang Jiang said that as a company they have also finalised and secured approval for all the two preparatory phases of the project and that their company will soon be on the ground in Malawi to start implementing the project once AXIM Bank of China does its part.

The project is expected to be implemented under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.