By Vincent Gunde
One of Malawi’s largest distributor of cook-stoves- Self Help Africa (SHA) will implement a-21 month Malawi Demand-Side Subsidies project which is aimed at increasing access to improved energy technologies in Dowa district.
The project is aligning to policy framework Malawi 2063 Enabler 7 Environmental Sustainability and is in Dowa District Development Plan (DDP) which has the objective of increasing access to clean and affordable energy from 37 percent to 50 percent connecting 280,212 households by 2030.
The project will provide fiscal incentives for environmentally friendly cooking equipment, expand the use of energy, increasing access to electricity to 50 percent by 2030 and increasing by 3.16 percent the population with primary reliance on clean energy for cooking.
Launching the project to the District executive committee (Dec) in Dowa, SHA’s subcontractor CUMOs Project Coordinator Clement Mwinjira, said the project has a duration of 21 months and this will be extended for 9 more months up to March, 2026.
Mwinjira said the project is a new approach and is being tested in countries such as Liberia, Niger and Uganda intending to test and refine it for future scale up saying Nkhata-Bay, Salima, Dedza, Balaka, Kasungu, Dowa and Mzimba have been selected basing on 100 percent availability of Unified Beneficiary Registers (UBR) data.
He said the districts were selected basing on low electrification rate, strong presence of Off-grid Solar (OGS), and implementation partners such as Endev- the financier, Self Help Africa (SHA) responsible and accountable for the project budget, and CUMO- subcontracted by SHA.
The Project Coordinator said only 15.6 percent of Malawi’s population has access to electricity, 54 percent urban access, 6 percent rural access where 80 percent live saying these people are lacking access to improved energy services negatively impacting quality of life, economic development and the environment.
“The project is aimed to address the affordability barrier to Off-grid Solar (OGS) products for people in ultra-poor, vulnerable settings, who would otherwise not be reached by commercial markets or existing public initiatives,” Mwinjira.
In her remarks, Dowa District Council’s Director of Planning and Development Mercy Mpakule, appealed to partners implementing energy projects to work together with Self Help Africa (SHA) for it to achieve its intended outcomes to the Dowa people.
Self Help Africa (SHA) will implement Malawi Demand-Side Subsidies project with support from Endev at a total budget of 3,499,999 Euros.
