The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), Tomás Matola, defends the "blocking" of energy solutions from neighboring countries in order to ensure that Mozambique becomes a hub energy in the southern African region.

According to Tomás Matola, on the demand side, countries in the region, such as South Africa, with a deficit of more than 6,000 megawatts, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia, are demanding more energy. This need is growing in Zambia due to the severe drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon.

From the PCA's perspective, this demand was an opportunity for Mozambique to intervene in the solutions by supplying HCB with energy.

"Our thinking is that we can't let these countries create their own solutions, because we have more potential than all of them put together. So we have to quickly block them with offtakes agreements with PPAs [Power Purchase Agreements], in order to guarantee that we will supply this energy. Only in this way will we ensure that Mozambique really is, hub energy in the southern region," he argued.

Matola stressed that this is a great opportunity for Mozambique to position itself, and warned that if it lets the window "close", "later on we will realize that all the countries, because they are suffering, have found their own solutions and will no longer need our energy".

The PCA notes that the challenge for Mozambique is solely to increase production capacity - the same as 50 years ago - "so that it doesn't become completely insignificant" in the coming years.

"If we have too much demand and too little supply, we're going to miss the opportunity and become irrelevant, even here in southern Africa. It is now urgent that we run with new generation projects with increased capacity," he said, stressing that HCB is looking at these challenges.

Tomás Matola was speaking on Friday, in Maputo, at the launch of HCB's "Journalism Prize", on the occasion of the celebration of the company's 50th anniversary, on June 23rd.