The president of Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), Marcelino Gildo, said on Thursday that the company loses US$100 million every year due to energy theft and grid inefficiency.

"The problem is in the non-technical losses, which derive from energy theft, it is energy theft that represents a large part of the losses," said Marcelino Gildo.

Marcelino Gildo was speaking after the inauguration of the electrification system of the administrative post of Itepela, Ngaúma district, Niassa province.

The "theft" of energy consists in deactivating the metering system of the consumption of this resource, making a direct connection between the distribution poles and the installation of the user's residence or other type of building.

The president of EDM advanced that the company reaches an annual turnover of $600 million.

To stop the theft of energy, he continued, the bet is to install the so-called smart meters, which are placed outside homes and on top of the distribution poles, being inaccessible to consumers who want to tamper with the meter.

Marcelino Gildo did not specify the amount of losses derived from theft, advancing that a smaller portion of wasted energy results from deficiencies in the national electrical grid infrastructure.

"We have a loss reduction program of 2%, every year. In the next four years, we will reduce 8% of losses and we are working very well, so much so that from last year to now we have already managed to reduce 2% of losses," maintained Marcelino Gildo.

He said that the company is focused on helping the country reach the United Nations goal of universal energy access by 2030.

"Now we are focusing on the Energy for All Program, which contemplates the electrification of all Mozambicans by 2030," he emphasized.

Currently, he continued, electricity reaches 40% of the Mozambican population, with 36% receiving it from the national grid and about 4% through alternative sources.

The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, said this Thursday, during the inauguration of the electric power system in Itepela, that the expansion of the national electricity grid is one of the ways to combat social inequalities and regional asymmetries in the country, because it promotes and distributes prosperity to all Mozambicans.

"Expanding access to electricity and other basic services is also a way to fight poverty, because misery is not fought by distributing money," Filipe Nyusi declared.

The infrastructure inaugurated this Thursday in Itepela will benefit 20 thousand consumers in this administrative post.