[2019-08-29] Mozambique signs financing agreements for Temane-Maputo power transmission line

Source: Macauhub

Financing contracts to the value of US$506.7 million for the Temane-Maputo electricity transmission project were signed on Wednesday in Maputo between the government of Mozambique and various foreign institutions, the Mozambican press reported.

The 563-kilometre transmission line project from Temane to Maputo, which stretches over a distance of 563 kilometres, is part of the natural gas-fired Temane Thermal Power Plant with capacity to produce 400 megawatts, the largest in the country following independence, costing an estimated US$1.3 billion.

Construction of the US$551.2 million transmission line, scheduled to start in the first half of 2020 and for completion by the end of 2023, will consist of the construction of a 340-kilometre stretch between Vilanculos-Chibuto (provinces of Inhambane and Gaza), 180 kilometres on the Chibuto-Matalane section (Gaza-Maputo) and 43 kilometres on the Matalane-Maputo section.

Foreign institutions involved in the financing are, according to daily Mozambican newspaper Notícias, the Government of Norway, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund and the Southern African Development Bank.

The Mozambican President, who spoke at the time, said that the construction of the Temane-Maputo line is the first phase of the Tete-Maputo line, also called the “backbone” of the country, which will allow the development of integrated electrical infrastructures that will bolster the industrialisation of Mozambique and Southern Africa.

The Temane plant, once completed, will allow 400 megawatts to be added to the national electricity grid, which corresponds to 16% of Mozambique’s production capacity.