East African Business Week

       
DAR ES SALAAM,  TANZANIA - The European Union has advised the Tanzanian Government to adopt solar power to light up the rural areas because it is reliable, renewable energy and cheap to install and maintain.
That advice was given in Dar es Salaam last week during a ceremony to sign a Euro 7,2 million grant from the European Union to Tanzania intended to benefit an estimated 160,000 villagers in the rural areas of the country.
The Head of European Union Delegation to Tanzania Ambassador Tim Clarke, who signed on behalf of the EU stressed that Tanzania has to change its mindset of reliance of power sourced dangerously from hydro power because, as is the present case, prolonged drought has gravely affected electricity generation, and plunged the country into loses to business, industrial production, disrupted social activities and inconveniences to the public.
Ambassador Clarke said the programme will enable the 160,000 villagers to be connected to reliable renewable energy, urging the Government to make full use of renewable energy.
"Tanzania faces an energy crisis and there is a huge challenge which needs the vision, strategy as well as resources in order to solve the electricity crisis," the Envoy said.
He said with proper planning and right approach, rural electrification under the Rural Energy Agency (REA), can bring a positive change in reducing poverty that faces most of the people living in the rural areas where an estimated 85 per cent of the country's 40-million plus live.
He expressed the EU's willingness to support initiatives that lead to development strategies aiming at benefiting the majority of Tanzania. He said that the EU will soon be launching the vision strategy that will see Zanzibar having renewable energy by 2025.
He reminded the Government that the EU assistance should be seen as hope to the villagers who are the beneficiaries to lead to sustainable development in rural energy electrification.
A representative of the Ministry of Finance  and Economic Affairs at the ceremony, who is also the Head of European Development Fund programme, Sadick Magwaya, said rural areas were most important places where electricity can make a difference to the majority population.