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Oliver Kazunga Acting Business Editor
THE Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is waiting for the approval of its budget by government before it embarks on an electrification exercise for this year.REA public relations and marketing manager Johannes Nyamayedenga told Business Chronicle yesterday that his organisation came up with a figure-driven budget for this year’s electrification projects.
“We’ve not yet come up with a number of rural institutions that we are targeting to electrify because the budget that we proposed for this year’s projects is yet to be approved by government.
“We are hoping that by end of next week, we would have secured the approval and thus when we would be able to say we expect to spend so much on this particular project,” he said.
Nyamayedenga would not be drawn into commenting how much REA had proposed for its programmes this year.
Last year, the then Finance Minister Tendai Biti allocated REA $1 million to enable it roll out its programmes. “As management, we drafted the budget and submitted it to our board for scrutiny before the proposed budget is sent to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development for approval,” he said.
Statistics on the number of institutions that REA electrified last year could not be obtained by the time of going to print yesterday because Nyamayedenga did not have the figures off hand.
However, during the tenure of the inclusive government, despite efforts by Rea to spearhead the electrification programme, lack of funds slowed down the projects.
In 2012, Rea failed to meet its electrification target and it electrified only 175 institutions of the 783.
During the period under review, Treasury allocated the agency $5 million but only $2 million was availed and it managed to electrify at least 508 institutions in the rural areas, among them schools, clinics and business centres.
Since the commissioning of REA more than a decade ago, the agency has electrified at least 5,000 institutions that include farms, villages, boreholes, dam points, irrigation schemes and chiefs’ homesteads in communal areas.
The government commissioned REA more than a decade ago through an Act of Parliament following recognition that rural electrification was a major pillar in enhancing socio-economic development throughout the country.
Over the years, the agency has also introduced many projects in the rural areas and these projects include grid extension, independent grids, photovoltaic systems (solar electrification) and renewable energy generation projects.
Online Reporter