K600m pension fund lies idle, Malawi govt eyes for hydro-power
A senior government official has suggested Capital Hill might contact pension fund managers to borrow some money in order to fund the construction of some more hydro-electric power stations as a long time plan to ease the current electricity problems.
Secretary to Treasury Ben Botolo said the pension fund has K500 million to K600 million lying idle elsewhere which he said the government can use for the electricity power investments.
Botolo’s comments come at a time when Escom, the power suppliers, have said there would be power black outs during the Easter holidays, which will leave Christians commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus in darkness.
The blackouts, in actual fact, started on Monday which are now longer than ever before with townships going the whole day without power.
Botolo said the government was upbeat that South Rukuru and Songwe rivers in the north can provide power for the country.
However, he was quick to say that such projects take long to materialize, saying the environmental impact assessment alone can take up to two years as experts would need to know the speed of the flow of water in the rivers.
Botolo also said that Press Corporation has shown interest to provide electricity and their proposal is being looked into by related government agencies.
“I am told they want to provide 60 megawatts of electricity. This is a welcome development,” said Botolo.
Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza said the Press Corporation proposal is being looked into by Mera, Egenco and others
Mr. Botolo should know better. The cost of building hydro electric power plant is in excess of $1 million dollars per megawatt. The money he is talking about is less than $1 million, hence Its just a drop in the ocean. To make a reasonable HEP plant, it must at least be designed for 10MW. You are talking not less than 15 times the amount he is talking about.
If there was all this money lying idle, why were the pensions of pensioners not revised this year ? Many have been getting the same amount of pension since July 2016.
Santana, can’t you see the people you defend day-in-and-out are as useless as they come and go? Does it make any sense to you or any other person for that matter to chase only 25% in value (of 4 billion) of the people’s pension funds to build power plants yet they want to give away the same on unidentified projects? Do we have a leader or leaders in this country? I don’t personally hate dpp as party but i hate the way they do things and treat all of us citizens as fools and some of us do qualify with distinctions to be fools.
A Botolonso nde mbuzi ya mano kunsi….! Is the reason of earmarking those resources for pensioners over? Have you paid them all?
Nde mkumati ameneyo nde PS…………………………..! Iwe wemwe unali patsogolo kulipila za ma gensets mkumati tagula, chikhalilecho ndi a rent! Mumvekele blackouts will be a thing of the past, ndi pita anuwo, lero mwatembenuka amvekera fwifwifwifwifwifwifwi mwakhuta khuta uko mwayesa ife oseweletetsa etiiiiiiiiiii?
Gondwe has idle money, botolo idle money, how much idel monies do you have afinye inuuuuuuuuuu?
Stop talking nonsense and start solving problems. How many years have you been a PS? This is all you can say. You budget K7billion for state house but for budget for electricity generation. Nonsense
“Idle elsewhere,” The new spirit of the land. Dead men and women masquerading as citizens of this country are the ones promoting these dudes to be stealing in broad day light. Democracy in ”
an illiterate nation” is a fart.
Where is Genset we already wasted money buying the Gensets?
Why not invest the 4Billion MPS wants to share for non existing constituency projects? Invest this money in hydro electricity…. why do we Malawians think upside down??
Izi zikuonetseratu kuti mukufuna kuba ndalama za pension basi. If your department will be giving out the K4Bn to MPs why not holding it for this purpose? How do you set the priorities for this land?
Koma izizi zomati there is this much money hanging somewhere zichepe mwamva AGALU inu!!!!!
Kodi amene amakazitokosola ndikuzipeza pomwe zimangokhala ndalamazo ndi mwana wandanj ndipo amakhala kuti amatani kuti azipeze? Nanga wosunga chikwama amati zangokhala chifukwa chani umphawi wonseu kadziko kathuka? Shupiti musanditukwanitse mwamva
Koma abale tadzikhalani ndi chisoni. Mwatizunza kokwanira… Zoona mpaka mukabe za pension. Anthu akuvutika kale kuti alandire ma pension awo. Mukakatapa ndiye zitha bwanji? Chonde ndagwira mwendo zokhazo zisiyeni. Inu amabungwe nkhani ya demo ija muikepo imeneyi ndithu. Kuphatu uku. Ndimayesa anagula ma genset? Zili pati?
Malawians we are stupid. Sukulu sidathandize aliyense m’Malawi. When did we start having power problems? Time in memorial but we still have not found a solution. Malawians we stupid basi. The whole PS making such useless statements. People are stealing billions but you are looking at K600 million which is for peoples pensions! Please push ACB to get the billions which has been stolen under the nose of the so call PSs and use that for your project which may not be finished at all. Asitafula!!
Malawian we are on fire… No where to run… Just few weeks ago someone was telling us that he had excess money (4 billion) which had no where to be spent. Why was this idea not sold to them… Please do not dare touching my pension funds. please spare us from further troubles. Poor decision led to investing in Generators, which is from onset I said its white elephant.. now u want this.. what is Escom doing with our moneys we are paying them ( how much revenue is it collecting per month)… We are being led by hungry idiots who want to leek any available money for their own benefit..
Up to now I fail to understand this animal escom.. I dont know how they propose projects.. In the past there was this interconnection with neighboring countries.. Money was spend but no progress,, Generators— money spent no progress,, Energy server bulbs… money was spent… LED bulbs… money was spent.. the list is endless.
Kkkkkkkk pension yanu amalawi ayamba kuimva kununkhila! Ndekuti pomwe patsala poti anthu asolole ndi pamenepo! Kkkkkkkkkk mmalawi ndi ndikusolola basi mavuto alipo
Calling yourselves field marshallS
for what ?? STEALING OUR TAXES ??
where is electricity !!
GIVE US A BREAK !
WE NEED BUSHIRI FULL STOP !!
Boma la nkhalamba ili mukuganiza pali cha nzeru anganene, uyunso Botolo is just there because he is mlomwe, with him and Goodal at Finance ministry do you expect anything good????? Economy yophunzira when Malawi annual budget was MWK100m can not be entrusted with an old man who even if he can go for refresher course will just be sleeping. Controlling Officer ngati Botolo will not make the ministry any better. If it were not for appeasement these two would not have been there.
Where is the money for MSB/FDH buy out is the money not idle also?
Botolo can you please shave to lead or manage by example. Now coming to this issue, this shows how stupid this government is. Just last the stupid government decided to reward the 86 shithole MPs with K4 billion and now wants just K600million for hydropower. The retired civil servants cannot get their gratuities for 6 months. A teacher who retired last year cannot get K10 million for 30 years of service. Stupidity.
Long time to materialize my foot. I smell a rat. This is just another route to take funds from pension and use for DPP use in the forth coming elections. After 2 years there will be no new power generation plant and no one to explain.
The 4Billion should not be shared to members of Parliament but be used for this project
why did you not use the 4 Billion you want to share with the 86 MPs?
Koma kumeneko ndimayesa paja mumati makina mwapanga hire aja bansi magetsi ikhala mbiri yakale, pano zakunyerani mukuti ndalama zilipo za peshoni zangokhala pena pake ibaniso mungotimaliza bansi tafa kale a Malawi, munali musanazione
Ife mapensioneer tikufuna 10 percent yathu kuchokera 2005 to date Koma A Goodall ziliko!
If K500 million is going to make that big a difference to Malawi’s economy, why is it not that Minister of Finance (Treasury)/Parliament did not access and utilise the free fall cash of K4 billion (which we now believe will be distributed to 193 MP’s) for building a solar power plant. Why is it that it taking so long to evaluate the offer made by PCL to generate 60MW. Why is EGENCO, MERA and others not just sign a PPA with PCL urgently given that it is a local company. Nthawi zina a Malawi we are backwards in our thinking and very slow at execution. We lack vision and critical thinking. We wait until there a crisis and then act sub-optimally.
BOMA ILO! BOMA ILO!