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| Mr Mhando |
It will take at least two years for the Tanzania Electric Supply
Company (Tanesco) to stabilise power distribution to its customers, it was
revealed in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
The Tanesco managing director, Mr William Mhando, told journalists on
Sunday that in addition to the timeframe, the company needs at least 1.3trn/-
to address the problems, which have affected power production, transmission and
distribution.
However, he assured Tanesco customers that the ongoing interruptions
were not part of rationing as understood in some quarters and described them as
a result of technical hitches occasioned by poor infrastructure, among other
factors.
Mr Mhando said that his company was undertaking projects to improve the
production, transmission and distribution of electricity. He revealed that his
firm was about to roll out the plan as it expects to land the long-awaited 408bn/-
in loans from commercial banks “anytime from now”.
According to him, the current power problems were a result of
government ‘neglect’ of the company and the power sector in general.
He told journalists that since the early 1990s, when the government
tried to privatise Tanesco, there haven’t been any major investments geared at
improving power production.
“For nearly ten years now, the government hasn’t invested in the
electricity sub-sector because it was looking for an investors (for Tanesco);
that’s why we’ve poor infrastructure that has been the major cause of power
interruptions,” he said.
He named some of the strategies
his company and the government have put in place to improve the sector as the
setting aside of 12 per cent of its monthly income for investing in electricity
production.
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| Tanesco technicians at work |
Mr Mhando said also that his company would acquire an US $805 million
(about 1.288trn/-) from the World Bank. The money would be used to improve
transmission infrastructure in Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions. He
added that Tanesco would also acquire a Euro25 million from the Finnish
government.
He said the money would be used to upgrade the Dar es Salaam city
centre transmission system from the current 11,000 volts to 33,000 volts to
cater for the ever-growing demand.
Source: The Citizen,www.thecitizen.co.tz, reported by Frank Kimboy
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