The state-owned company Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) has acquired 70% of the shareholdings of the shareholders of the current concessionaire of the Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric plant, a project being designed and with a projected production capacity of 1500 MW, on the Zambezi River, in the central province of Tete.

The decision was announced by the spokesperson for the Council of Ministers, Filimão Suaze, after an ordinary session that took place this Thursday (12) in Maputo.

In a publication by AIMThe government spokesman explained that the approval of EDM's shares in Mphanda Nkuwa is the first step, as "all the other subsequent steps related to this matter will be taken later, but then it was necessary to first create this basis that serves as an umbrella for the whole exercise at the commercial level of what is going to happen".

According to Filimão Suaze, this instrument formalizes the entry of the partners into the hydroelectric project for its materialization, stressing that the entire exercise must take place without any burden on the Mozambican state.

Last December, EDM, the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office, Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa and the consortium formed by Électricité de France [Electricity of France], Total Energies, Sumitomo Corporation, signed the Mphanda Nkuwa Implementation Framework Agreement (FWA).

The project is budgeted at 5.5 billion dollars. Projections indicate that during the construction phase it should employ around seven thousand workers. The number is expected to fall by three thousand permanent jobs once the project is completed, 95% of which will be for Mozambican citizens.

The indicative deadlines are the end of 2024 for the financial closure of the project and 2030 for the completion of the works.

(Photo DR)