Hermínio Guambe once ran a small barbershop with no electricity in his village outside Mozambique’s capital.
The arrival of power transformed his business. Now 48, he uses hair dryers, while the local pharmacy can stock vital medicines requiring refrigeration.
More jobs have been created as trading and transport improved. “These are the kinds of businesses that drive economies,” World Bank President Ajay Banga said in an interview with The Associated Press during a July visit to electrification projects and meetings with entrepreneurs like Guambe.
“Electricity isn’t just light, it’s a chance.” Mozambique has secured World Bank backing for the $6 billion Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric plant, the largest power project in southern Africa in 50 years.
Despite being among the world’s poorest nations by per capita income, Mozambique aims to connect all of its 33 million mostly rural citizens to electricity by 2030, relying primarily on hydro, solar, and other renewable sources, according to AP News.
The challenge Mozambique faces is widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 85% of the global population living without electricity, according to the World Bank.
Mozambique’s access rate has nearly doubled in six years, from 31% in 2018 to 60% in 2024.
State-owned utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) connected 563,000 households in 2024 and plans to reach 600,000 this year.
“Mozambique has the resources, gas, hydro, solar, and it’s already the biggest supplier of excess power to southern Africa,” Banga noted.
His trip was marked by public enthusiasm and political undertones. President Daniel Chapo, elected in a disputed 2024 vote, raised his fist to cheering crowds.
The Mphanda Nkuwa project, located 60 kilometers downstream from the massive Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi River, is expected to produce 1,500 megawatts when operations begin in 2031.
The output would help narrow a regional power deficit of 10,000 megawatts that has left millions without reliable access.
The World Bank is not directly financing construction but is providing concessional funding for legal and environmental aspects, transmission lines, partial risk guarantees, and political risk insurance.
The project will be developed by TotalEnergies, Électricité de France, and Mozambique’s Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa.
Banga emphasized that the World Bank’s approach reflects a global pivot toward private sector–led development.
“Many shareholders, even in Europe, are reducing their overseas development assistance budgets because they have to divert the money to defense and their own needs.
This is the way it is,” he said, underscoring the need to shift from donor dependence.
Beyond domestic electrification, Mphanda Nkuwa is expected to generate critical foreign exchange for Mozambique through electricity exports to neighbors such as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
It joins a wave of large-scale hydropower developments reshaping Africa’s energy landscape.
Ethiopia is preparing to inaugurate its $4 billion Grand Renaissance Dam, which will eventually generate more than 5,000 megawatts despite Egypt’s fierce objections.
In Congo, the World Bank is backing the vast Inga 3 project that could transmit power as far as South Africa and Nigeria.
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Yet hydropower remains largely untapped in Africa, with an estimated 90% of potential capacity unused, according to the World Bank and the International Hydropower Association.
In Mozambique, extending the national grid across a vast country poses difficulties.
“Our country is quite big, and it’s not so easy to go everywhere with the national grid,” EDM chairman Joaquim Ou-Chim explained.
Around 10% of electricity access currently comes from off-grid solutions, largely solar, with more projects underway.
Some experts argue that while mega-dams are important, smaller projects are vital for local impact.
“We are talking about plenty of rivers, plenty of sunshine, plenty of wind, plenty of coastlines,” said Maputo-based energy consultant Evaristo Cumbane.
“The real Mozambique is in rural, remote areas.” He also expressed concern over rising public debt, which stood at about $17 billion in early 2025.
The Finance Ministry reported a record $2.1 billion in debt service payments in 2023.
“The World Bank is not a godfather, it is not god. The guy is here on business. These are not donations,” Cumbane cautioned, noting uncertainty over how much new debt the project will add.
Banga estimated the total cost at $5 billion to $6 billion, though final figures are yet to be determined.
Mozambique’s economic trajectory has been shaped by political turbulence since independence from Portugal in 1975, including a long civil war, renewed fighting after a peace deal, and an Islamist insurgency in the north that forced TotalEnergies to suspend a $20 billion gas project.
The company has expressed hope of restarting operations. For citizens like Guambe, however, the benefits of electrification are already evident.
In another impoverished neighborhood outside Maputo visited by Banga, 38-year-old Aurélio Arlindo, unemployed and living without electricity, looked to the newly installed power poles as a symbol of hope.
“It’s really coming. I am just waiting,” he said, adding that he dreams of opening a cold drinks stall once power arrives.
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Image Credit: The Seattle Times
