Muluzi says Malawi future lies in mining, natural resources
Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Atupele Muluzi on Friday said his ministry is made up of special entities for economic growth.
Speaking in Lilongwe during a ministerial dialogue with staff members within the ministry, Muluzi said the country’s economic growth depends on natural resources, energy and mining.
“The officers have worked hard as a team in the year ending and managed to focus on the vision of the ministry and in 2015 we will make sure that the culture of integrity is there as issues of transparency and accountability would be looked into,” said Muluzi.
He added that the ministry has strong desires and commitment in discharging their duties and encouraged them to use the funding allocated prudently to accomplish the desired work.
Speaking earlier, Director of Energy, Gideon Nyirongo said the linkage between energy and economic development is well known world-wide and countries that have developed are those that use greatest quantities of energy per capita.
“The Government has prioritized energy generation and supply among priority areas for sustainable economic development.
“The total installed power generation capacity is 350 MW against unsuppressed demand of around 450 MW and the demand is projected to grow to 750 MW by 2015 and more than 1000 MW by 2020,” explained Nyirongo.
He said to improve the energy sector there is diversification of source of electricity generation and there are constructing a Coal Fired Power Plant at Kammwamba in Neno which is expected to produce 300 megawatts and plans are at advanced stage.
Nyirong also said there are working on Hydro Power Projects on Tedzani which will be producing about 22 megawatts and feasibility studies have been done, the project to start in June 2015 and completed in 2018 through a grant from Japan.
Director of mines, Charles Kaphwiyo said Malawi as a country lacks a culture of mining and that the expectation of people is high than what is explored.
“There is a need to sensitize the rural communities on issues of mines; it is not all the time that when a company is trying to identify or explore mines it will do that.
“There are techniques challenges since some of the mines cannot be explored due to quantity or machines needed to use when exploring,” said Nyirongo.
He added that support infrastructure is not complete as good roads are needed to transport mines to the market areas and insufficient power produced in the country also affects the exploration of mines as there is need for high use of power.
Deputy Director of Forest, Thomas Makhambera said the department has managed to produce more than 60 million trees on both customary land, plantation and forest reserve areas.
He also said this year the department is planning to plant about 60 million trees across the country during the tree planting season which is from December 15 2014 to April 15 2015.
Makhambera said on capacity building the department has trained 770 workers on how to control bush fires.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
In a rear prove of agreement we t0tally with the ministers views we want more improved means of getting it work like :Establishing the private laboratories to allow more private individuals to prove there skills and skills
I believe completely in mining what atupele muluzi is saying is 100% correct because we have had 50 solid years thinking that agriculture can develop our economy look where we are now I am pretty happy because I am working with mining industry here south Africa as locomotive driver now I have positive ideas on how this man is targeting at I know how my fellow Malawian can think about negative about this but this will create jobs for fellow Malawians of which now they are in poverty. In mining companies .ie the kayelekera mine if we checked the stastics… Read more »
If young people joining politics in and taking up leadership positions are not going to question things from fundamental basis and follow common mistakes then Malawi next 50 years will be failed as the past 50 years. What is the fundamental basis to justify an extractive industry such as mining to be the future of any country? Malawi is looking to young talents to bring about new kind of thought process to lift the country out of economic stagnation. Policies of agriculture, extractive mining, forestation etc never developed a country. I get very frustrated with how over the years Africa/Malawi… Read more »
That is just rhetoric : Agriculture and mining has never developed a country ? Laugh out loud… Those are the driving forces behind economy and as every government always make it a priority to protect those two sectors no matter whichever bilateral agreement there is with another country and there u r saying those two sectors dont mean a damn thing ! wats wrong with u?
Malawians we are very useless people we talk of conserving tree yet electricity our main source of power is very expensive. Point 1 1. Reduce cost of electricity charges so that use of charcoal / makala will be greatly reduce. We know mumadya ndalama za escom Koma pliz reduce the cost of electricity it is too much Point number 2 We talk of revenue from mining but we are not willing to tell the public the dangers or results or bad effects of mining, Countries doing mining are facing natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions so with Malawi to… Read more »
All your 4 points are flawed
First of all we cannot say that electricity is the energy alternative for charcoal perhaps if u say natural gas that makes sense… 2ndly ESCOM like any other companies is there to maximise their profits and u shouldnt expect them to decrease the price of electricity and despite all this crap ur saying here, Malawi has one of the cheapest electricity in the world and I think this isnt good for us, there needs to be an increase in the price which will benefit us in the long term… 3rdly those western countries own the expertise and state of art… Read more »
This is the same as putting bridge where there is no river kkkkkk. why cant u talk about agriculture as our main source?
I don’t support that idea of mining since I do not see any tangible benefit Andale ndi omwe amalemela. Bingu earned billion from kayelekera and up to now nobody is following up to know how much he pocketed. What a shame
Where is the mines here in Malawi?mumatipepelesa bwanji.fotsek.
That’s Atupele I know,full of wisdom
Atupele Woyeeeeee!
The main reason we are not into mining is that there is not adequate electricity. Supply the electricity, then I believe we shall be amazed by the development which will take place with the mining of rare earth and bauxite.
Well said. But serious investors in mining invested in own generation while waiting for the grid electricity . . .am talking about Paradin
The major problem is that WE ARE STILL RELAYING ON THE OLD MACHINES WHICH OUR BELOVED LATE KAMUZU BANDA BUILT.SEEK NEW SITES WHERE H.E.P.CAN ALSO BE PRODUCED,OTHER THAN RELAYING ON NKHULA,TEDZANI ETC.THANKS TO THE LATE KAMUZU BANDA FOR THESE UNIQUE VISIONS WHICH SOME LEADERS ARE FAILING TO PERCEIVE.CAN’T YOU FIND OTHERS WATERFALLS ON the following rivers: Dwangwa,Songwe,Rukuru,Wamkulumazdi etc,so that companies other than ESCOM can venture into producing the same power?Go to Mchenga Coal Mine,you will see that their Manager diverted some of the water from a small stream but it is able to cater a part of their work there.We… Read more »