Tanzania to Halt Power Utility’s 41-Year Monopoly by Year-End

Energy Minister William Ngeleja

Tanzania plans to enact a law allowing private companies to provide electricity in the East African nation by the end of the year, halting a four decade- long monopoly held by the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd.

Tanzania will publish the Electricity Act, which enables other providers to generate power, in the government gazette by year-end, Deputy Energy Minister Adam Malima said on the sidelines of a conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam today.

“The private sector is more than welcome to invest by doing it alone or by partnering with the public sector,” Energy Minister William Ngeleja said at the convention.

Tanzania suffers from recurring power shortages due to insufficient investment in its electricity-generating capacity. The government approved a 300 billion-shilling loan for the state-owned power utility, known as Tanesco, to help it upgrade its infrastructure, Ngeleja said. The funds form part of a 1.95 trillion-shilling recovery plan announced in June, with the World Bank and Millennium Challenge Corp. contributing to the project.

Ngeleja said the government “was aware” of barriers which deter private capital from the industry and that it was changing its power-industry reform plan, first released in 1999, to make it more conducive to investment, he said

Msomaji
Dar es salaam