Talks on energy investment on track

Dar es Salaam. Negotiations between the government and companies that have shown interest in investing in the energy sector are at an advanced stage, The Citizen has learnt.

The projects and their projected capacity in brackets include: Wind-East Africa Energy (100MW); Masigira Hydro (70MW); Songo Songo natgas (60MW); Kilwa natgas (320MW) and Mbeya Coal (300MW).

The acting assistant commissioner for energy development at the ministry of Energy, Mr Juma Mkobya, told The Citizen last week that the government will also float a tender so as to give room for other interested companies to participate in developing Tanzania’s energy sector.

“After the meeting between members of private sector and their public sector counterparts, which was chaired by President John Magufuli in February, 2018, we hastened discussion with investors in wind energy and other areas and now, the discussions have reached a very good stage,” he said.

During the meeting, which was convened under the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) banner, President Magufuli directed the ministry to work on complaints that had been raised by investors who had shown the interest in energy sector.

Representing the energy sector, Mr Salumu Shamte said during the meeting that talks between the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) and investors in the five aforementioned projects has had not yielded any positive result for a long time.

However, Mr Mkobya said that there were a number of potential areas for energy production including wind, coal and hydro, adding that the ministry was finalising the process of announcing the tender.