admin“Our major aim is to raise the living standards of our people in rural people to the levels of urban dwellers. Electricity is the springboard of development,” he said.
Mr Chikovo, who is also Masvingo provincial administrator, said the Rural Electrification Agency was working hard to ensure that the provincial target is met adding that the company’s personnel was already in the field installing electricity.
“REA is doing a splendid job and we want to ensure that all our districts have power. We want to achieve the target we have set and resources permitting there is no reason why we can not complete three quarters of the projects. I believe with the necessary support from the community and institutions concerned, the sky could be the only limit for Masvingo province to achieve its objectives in distributing power sparingly in all areas.”
Mr Chikovo said REA had quarterly targets which were however, affected by the slow release of resources.
“On the first quarter we had planned to electrify 18 institutions that include schools, growth points, chiefs’ houses and clinics. However, we could not complete the projects because we received the resources late and in such circumstances we normally carry forward the work to the next quarter.”
He said the provincial committee had targeted to electrify 48 institutions in the second quarter before going on to 72 and 95 institutions for the third and fourth quarter respectively.
He said REA is responsible in funding all the projects but provinces receive annual allocations from the Treasury.
“We are expecting to receive our annual allocation of US$300 000 from the Ministry of Finance but we have not seen anything as of now. Sometimes the money is not coming and
REA ends up taking a proactive stance of looking for funding,” he said.
Mr Chikovo said the province wanted all traditional chiefs to have power at their homesteads.
Online Reporter