Toshiba pledges support towards Malawi’s geothermal energy development

Toshiba, the renowned Japanese multinational conglomerate, has pledged to support geothermal energy development in Malawi by, among other ways, offering a scholarship to one “young brilliant and qualified Malawian” to study geothermal energy and hydro power in Japan.

Toshiba President, Satoshi Tsukanawa, made the pledge on Thursday when he held a side meeting with Malawi Government delegation at TICAD7 in Yokohama, Japan.

The two sides met for further discussions on the support of energy project in Malawi following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on the same in South Africa in 2018.

Tsukanawa said like the conglomerate was doing in other African countries, Toshiba would like to strengthen the development of energy sector in Malawi by building the capacity of the country’s human resource in the sector.

“Toshiba is increasing its focus on Africa, including Malawi and we are going to support in the area of geothermal and hydro power systems,” said Tsukanawa in an interview with Mana after the side meeting with the Malawi delegation.

“So we would like to continue to have multilateral discussions on this on a win-win relationship basis,” he added.

According to the Toshiba President, supporting one young, talented and qualified Malawian in the said field up to Masters or Doctorate level would help in achieving sustainable development in the energy sector in Malawi.

He added that the identification of the candidate would be done in a couple of weeks to come through a transparent process between Malawi Government and the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) in Malawi.

Once identified, the candidate would be fully sponsored by Toshiba to study in the said area in one of the Japanese universities for a year to attain the required level of mastery to develop the energy sector in Malawi with the support of Toshiba.

The Malawi delegation comprises Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Salim Bagus, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Ralph Jooma and Malawi Ambassador to Japan, Grenenger Msulira Banda, among others.

During the meeting, the delegation had pushed for funding of the energy project on South Rukulu River in Northern Region, according to Bagus.

On May 3, 2018, Toshiba and Malawi’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in South Africa on Geothermal Power Generation.

The MoU anticipated a comprehensive partnership in geothermal power projects, including capacity building programs in relation to the technology.

The Malawi delegation currently in Japan also pushed for manufacturing of diversified technological products and services with the renowned conglomerate to partner Malawi’s power generating company, Egenco, in a Public Private Partnership.

This would strengthen the energy sector in Malawi.

Bagus described the meeting with Toshiba as successful, saying the global technology conglomerate had expressed interest in supporting the energy sector in Malawi.

“We are happy with the commitment Toshiba has made towards energy development in Malawi through capacity building,” stated Bagus in an interview.

“On the Rukuru Project and the partnership with Egenco, Toshiba has said they first need more information before they can make any commitment and we are going to provide the required information through our ambassador here in Japan,” said Bagus.

Toshiba, which is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a multinational manufacturer of information technology and communications equipment, consumer electronics, medical equipment and home appliances among other equipment.

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