Maputo, May 29, 2026 (Lusa) - The chair of Mozambique's National Energy Transmission Company (STE), Pedro Nguelume, on Friday backed commercial funding and private sector involvement to build electricity infrastructure and face industry challenges.
"We need more energy, and we must know how to choose these partners properly," he said during a debate at the second Energy Club (an industry discussion forum) in Maputo, adding that it was necessary to start to "include commercial funding" to expand the power grid.
He considered this type of funding "viable" because it offered a clear cost and framework to amortise the sector's debt, unlike concessional loans or grants to build electricity infrastructure.
Nguelume acknowledged "extremely complicated" challenges in the energy transmission sector, saying the country had to seek partnerships that would assume the risks of investing in Mozambique, which aims to become a regional energy hub.
"We must start thinking about how to bring concessional and commercial funding into an equation where we were previously used to it not exceeding 25%. The challenge is currently very big," he said.
The STE chair warned of changing funding paradigms in the sector, noting that about 1,600 kilometres of lines linking the provinces of Inhambane and Maputo in southern Mozambique needed to be connected.
He added that the industry, the private sector, banks, the government, and all stakeholders who want to help the country achieve energy independence had to find solutions.
"We must include the private sector. This requires regulations to ensure they know their role. They must know how returns will be received so that, above all, they understand the instruments that regulate our sector. I think this is what is important for us to understand, and this was the challenge I was bringing," he concluded.
The chair of Mozambique's Association of Electrical Engineers (Amelec, a professional engineering body), Dário Nhacassane, spoke at the same session and noted the country's energy and mineral resource potential, alongside its strategic and "privileged" location to establish itself as a true energy hub.
"However, this potential requires vision, long-term planning, structural investments and, above all, highly qualified human capital at a time when the world is discussing the energy transition, smart grid digitalisation, storage, regional interconnections and security of supply," he said.
Nhacassane added that, amid deep global transformations, the country had a historical responsibility to accelerate the development of its power infrastructure and ensure that "no megawatt remains isolated due to a lack of transmission capacity."
VIYS/LYT // ADB.
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