By Vincent Gunde
The Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Energy has commenced implementation of Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) project, a successor project to Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP) to contribute to the achievement of the National Energy Compact and Mission 300.
Government intends to achieve 50 percent electrification through the project which is being implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining; and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Limited.
The project is financed by a $250.8 million grant from the World Bank and is to be implemented from 2025 to 2030 with the objective of increasing clean and sustainable energy access in Malawi.
Briefing the District Executive Committee (Dec) in Dowa, Deputy Project Manager for ASCENT Malawi Project in the Ministry of Energy, Mr. James Namalima, said that success of the project will be measured by the number of people provided with direct access to electricity through new connections, number of Health and Education facilities provided with access to electricity; and number of households provided with clean cooking solutions.
Namalima said the project will also have the component of providing energy access for schools and health facilities being implemented by the Ministry of Energy, clean cooking solutions being implemented by Ministry of Energy and Technical assistance and capacity building being implemented by both Ministry of Energy and ESCOM.
The Manager said ASCENT project will be scaling up electrification of public facilities by prioritizing criteria such as population served, the higher the population, the higher the chances to be prioritized, and distance from an existing ESCOM transformer.
He said the project will also prioritize on Health facilities experiencing high frequency of blackouts such as Mponela Community Hospital, health posts, health centres and schools in Dowa district like Chamwala, Jonasi, Sungeni, Sindeya, and others.
Namalima said the project will provide clean cooking solution to dedicated clean cooking loan window to be designed and subsidized loans to clean cooking companies targeting 150,000 households to have access to clean cooking solution.
“The project will support governance structures such as project steering committee, project technical committee and Technical subcommittees on Energy for Education, and health facility electrification,” he said.
In his remarks, Dowa District Council’s Chief Administrative Officer Mathews Mkandawire, called on partners in the district to support the project for it to achieve its intended outcomes.
