Je hii ndio inayosababisha tusiwe na energy policy

[August]

DASSU STEPHEN, 18th February 2009 @ 22:32

TANZANIA will get a big boost in electricity supply, after the completion of a 400mw coalpower plant within the next three years, officials said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

TANCOAL Energy Limited Director Peter Tsegas said the project was a joint venture between his firm and the National Development Corporation (NDC). "TANCOAL is in the process of obtaining all approvals and a licence from relevant authorities," Mr Tsegas said.

TANCOAL is owned by Pacific Corporation East Africa Limited (PCEA), a Tanzanian firm in which Atomic Resources Limited of Australia has majority stake. TANCOAL was established in April, last year, to exploit coal resources at Ngaka and Mhukuru in Ruvuma Region and generate electricity to be integrated into the National Grid. The project is estimated to cost 1.2 billion US dollars (about 1.6trillion/-), according to Mr Tsegas.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) is currently the power utility monopoly, with installed capacity of 1,212 MW, out of which 562MW is generated from hydro-power stations and the balance coming from diesel and gaspowered plants. The cash-strapped Tanesco mostly operates far below the installed capacity for various reasons, including adverse weather conditions and aged machinery.

Industry sources forecast the country's annual power demand to exceed 1,100MW by 2010, a factor making increased diversification a matter that needs serious attention. The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity.

 

[August]

DASSU STEPHEN, 18th February 2009 @ 22:32

TANZANIA will get a big boost in electricity supply, after the completion of a 400mw coalpower plant within the next three years, officials said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

TANCOAL Energy Limited Director Peter Tsegas said the project was a joint venture between his firm and the National Development Corporation (NDC). "TANCOAL is in the process of obtaining all approvals and a licence from relevant authorities," Mr Tsegas said.

TANCOAL is owned by Pacific Corporation East Africa Limited (PCEA), a Tanzanian firm in which Atomic Resources Limited of Australia has majority stake. TANCOAL was established in April, last year, to exploit coal resources at Ngaka and Mhukuru in Ruvuma Region and generate electricity to be integrated into the National Grid. The project is estimated to cost 1.2 billion US dollars (about 1.6trillion/-), according to Mr Tsegas.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) is currently the power utility monopoly, with installed capacity of 1,212 MW, out of which 562MW is generated from hydro-power stations and the balance coming from diesel and gaspowered plants. The cash-strapped Tanesco mostly operates far below the installed capacity for various reasons, including adverse weather conditions and aged machinery.

Industry sources forecast the country's annual power demand to exceed 1,100MW by 2010, a factor making increased diversification a matter that needs serious attention. The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity.

 

[zomba]

Hamna ufisadi humo? maana sasa ni nyimbo!

 

[Nyambala]

Hamna ufisadi humo? maana sasa ni nyimbo!

Kwa staili ya mwendo tunaoenda usijestajabu kukawa na kaharufu hako!!!!!!

 

[August]

ninacho shanga hii tender ilitoka lini? pili ni hii tabia ya serikali ya kutokukufanya miradi yake ili kulinda miradi ya baadhi yetu, kiwira na huu wa sasa.

 

[Nyambala]

ninacho shanga hii tender ilitoka lini? pili ni hii tabia ya serikali ya kutokukufanya miradi yake ili kulinda miradi ya baadhi yetu, kiwira na huu wa sasa.

Ni total confusion.........

 

[Kokolo]

DASSU STEPHEN, 18th February 2009 @ 22:32

TANZANIA will get a big boost in electricity supply, after the completion of a 400mw coalpower plant within the next three years, officials said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

TANCOAL Energy Limited Director Peter Tsegas said the project was a joint venture between his firm and the National Development Corporation (NDC). "TANCOAL is in the process of obtaining all approvals and a licence from relevant authorities," Mr Tsegas said.

TANCOAL is owned by Pacific Corporation East Africa Limited (PCEA), a Tanzanian firm in which Atomic Resources Limited of Australia has majority stake. TANCOAL was established in April, last year, to exploit coal resources at Ngaka and Mhukuru in Ruvuma Region and generate electricity to be integrated into the National Grid. The project is estimated to cost 1.2 billion US dollars (about 1.6trillion/-), according to Mr Tsegas.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) is currently the power utility monopoly, with installed capacity of 1,212 MW, out of which 562MW is generated from hydro-power stations and the balance coming from diesel and gaspowered plants. The cash-strapped Tanesco mostly operates far below the installed capacity for various reasons, including adverse weather conditions and aged machinery.

Industry sources forecast the country's annual power demand to exceed 1,100MW by 2010, a factor making increased diversification a matter that needs serious attention. The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity.

Cost of producing 1MW from coal is $1.2 million (2009), $0.9million (2005) for 2010 the cost estimate will be $1.4 million per 1 MW, if you take 400MW X 1.4 million you will get $560.00million, so why $1.2 billion (is it transfer pricing), they don't want to pay tax for 1000 years.
Shit.

For Turbine- the cost of 100MW=$40.00million for 400MW= $160.00million.

 

[Kokolo]

DASSU STEPHEN, 18th February 2009 @ 22:32

TANZANIA will get a big boost in electricity supply, after the completion of a 400mw coalpower plant within the next three years, officials said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

TANCOAL Energy Limited Director Peter Tsegas said the project was a joint venture between his firm and the National Development Corporation (NDC). "TANCOAL is in the process of obtaining all approvals and a licence from relevant authorities," Mr Tsegas said.

TANCOAL is owned by Pacific Corporation East Africa Limited (PCEA), a Tanzanian firm in which Atomic Resources Limited of Australia has majority stake. TANCOAL was established in April, last year, to exploit coal resources at Ngaka and Mhukuru in Ruvuma Region and generate electricity to be integrated into the National Grid. The project is estimated to cost 1.2 billion US dollars (about 1.6trillion/-), according to Mr Tsegas.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) is currently the power utility monopoly, with installed capacity of 1,212 MW, out of which 562MW is generated from hydro-power stations and the balance coming from diesel and gaspowered plants. The cash-strapped Tanesco mostly operates far below the installed capacity for various reasons, including adverse weather conditions and aged machinery.

Industry sources forecast the country's annual power demand to exceed 1,100MW by 2010, a factor making increased diversification a matter that needs serious attention. The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity.

Cost of producing 1MW from coal is $1.2 million (2009), $0.9million (2005) for 2010 the cost estimate will be $1.4 million per 1 MW, if you take 400MW X 1.4 million you will get $560.00million, so why $1.2 billion (is it transfer pricing), they don't want to pay tax for 1000 years.
Shit.

For Turbine- the cost of 100MW=$40.00million for 400MW= $160.00million.

 

[Koba]

The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity.

...hii sheria imebadilika lini,najua private investor wanaruhusiwa production tu ndio maana huoni investors wa maana,kama ni kweli basi ni good news na tutanza kuona matatizo ya umeme yakipungua!

 

[Suki]

You would think tutaongeza effort in renewable energy resources...

 

[bm21]

This is among the very crucial post, yet it has received less comments. I bet in 2010 the same will be heavily commented.

May be I'm not informed for this, is the content of this statement ''The project also comes a few months after the country changed the law to allow private investors to generate, distribute and trade in electricity'' correct?. In a nutshell, de-regulation in utility industry especially electricity industry where economies of scale or scope and natural monopolies are quity evident have been not obvious for most developed countries for instance UK and USA. However, these countries have gone through a series of de-regulation models since 1930 to date and best results eventually obtained.

Basically, efficient competition in electricity industry cant not be done with such policy above as I'm not sure if that is the current policy on electricity. In principle, electricity industry have three key components namely; generation, distribution and supply. Competition basically exists at the generation part. This is the only part that can be de-regulated. UK have more than 70 generators. At the distribution part, competition doesn't exist, thus you don't need to introduce competition but rather franchising (competitive tendering). Here we, can have say 10 firms responsible for power distribution and general maintenance of infrastucture. Lastly, at the supply part, here again competition doesn't exist. In this party there basically two options, one is to maintain monopoly and pose some regulation on it for instance here Tanesco can take charge. The second option is to come up with say 2 or three firms under franchising say one responsible with industry power consupltion and the other ofr domestic consumers.

Basicaly, this is potentailly how electricity industry should be de-regulated if we are to ensure efficiency and equity. If the statement above on the current de-regualtion of electricity in Tanzanis is true, surely I tell you guys we'll soon be on the same vicious cycle while others (foreigner firms) eating on a golden plate.

 

[MawazoMatatu]

This is among the very crucial post, yet it has received less comments. I bet in 2010 the same will be heavily commented.

..labda mpaka iwe na heading kama "Bill 560 zaliwa kiwira" au itoke kwenye kijarida cha cheche (no offence).

 

[MawazoMatatu]

Mwenzetu Richard aliwahi kuipost hii mwaka jana ni Mkakati wa Serikali ya Rwanda waliiita Vision 2020 waliitoa hii riport mwaka 2005. Nashawishika kusema makadilio yote ya gharama ni kwa bei za mwaka 2005.

It is, largely, a two-pronged approach. First to lay down a 1,000-hectares piece of land to be developed into a Free Trade Zone at an estimated $200 million dollars.

And it also involves laying out turbines to produce some 560 megawatts of power for only about $30 million.

It is apparent that, stretching from DR-Congo in the East, to Burundi in the South, to Tanzania in the East and to Uganda in the North, Rwanda has the potential to tap into the regional market and position herself as the regional centre of commerce and industry.

Hon Prof Nshuti Paul Manasseh, Minister of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives
Mr Nshuti Paul Manasseh, Minister of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives , says they are not sitting back. He explains:

"Overall, the ministry has been able to work in those areas that are crucial to the development of Rwanda. We have been able to attract investors in this country. We have tourism. We have been able to revive the cooperative movements.

That calls for mobilising the people. We have been able to revive those movements for the good of the country. We have seen the growth of the construction industry which is a very vibrant industry, with new buildings constructed and building materials being produced. Of course, for a country that has just come out of war and out of a genocide, that high construction growth was expected.

Most important we have been able to promote the country, what we call image building. You have to have a good image. You can't develop the tourism industry if you don't have a good image. Rwanda has been able to do that: to reconstruct and build the country as a successful tourism destination. That has to be done and done quickly.

Roots of construction
Well, first because much of what was there was destroyed during the war. That is one. Secondly, we have many returnees, many from Uganda, all over Africa and the world. They are returning and they would want to have a home here. So that has pushed the construction up. The growth can sometimes be alarming. Growth has to be regulated because you don't want to constrain other sectors, you don't want it to constrain financing to other sectors.

But basically, returnees have been a factor. I think that is what happened in Uganda. Returnees bring back their money to invest in property.

The second reason is that there has been growth in business. And there has been lots of office space. There are a few companies putting up structures here and there.

Rwanda is a unique investment destination by virtue of our location. We, of course, are in the middle of a 60 million population. When you are in Rwanda you are not only talking of Rwandese, you are talking of the inter-land. You are talking of Congo, traders from Burundi, traders from Tanzania, traders from Uganda. So a company operating here, will take this advantage. And that has been one of our strategies.

Then of course, we have local incentives we give to investors here including services like free land, free water, telephone. We have of course security. Of course, companies coming to invest here need to know that Kigali is secure. That has been an advantage. We have also got to take advantage of the climate. For agro- business, we have the best climate for them by virtue of our location.

So there are so many reasons why we are attractive to investment. We don't work like public civil servants. We come from a private sector background. We don't know any culture than private sector culture.

I think taxation is not a big problem as you say. Because we are under Comesa, our tax regime is not any different from the Comesa customs regime. Of course, every country has its own internal calculation of the taxes. We may not address many issues. But the tax policy is not bad; you know tax is not negative to the economy. It achieves so many objectives. It is not just a means of collecting money.

So I don't think that the tax regime here is highest in the region. Definitely it is not high. The problem, may be, is that taxes here are open; you can see them. Other countries have so many hidden taxes; they can be extremely higher. I can give an example, I don't have to name some countries, they will say the rates of something are about 30 percent excluding tax. But when you calculate you find that Value Added Tax is may be 18 percent, others are may be about 10 percent. When you add all those taxes, you find the taxes so high. But for us we have no hidden taxes, may be we should also change this structure so that we appeal to investors!

Certainly, we are doing something about tapping this regional market and making Rwanda a regional hub. We have a Free Trade Area– in fact it was passed by cabinet – we have a thousand hectares north of Kigali, which has been gazetted as a Free Trade Area. Meaning, you can bring goods from Kampala and sell them from there. We allow you to sell 20 percent of them in the local market and 80 percent of them in the export market, Congo, Burundi... So that is going to be our main target. We are determining the Environmental Impact Assessment. If we keep time, then before the end of this year we shall have it. We have a number of companies that have applied. But we cannot allow them until the Environmental Impact Assessment has been approved. But we are ready for that.

I think the economic growth has been averaging 8 percent. And sometimes when you are small, you have an advantage because it has some challenges. First, because of prudent policy, the nature of fiscal policy, attractive investment environment...

Rwanda is one of the few countries in the region where corruption is not a culture. There are few countries in the region which have the same attractive environment. There has a been a sense of security which has been good. We have created growth and certainty – all that helps the economy. But again investment from abroad and investment from returnees has helped the growth of the economy. They are bringing money back home.

Fixing the power
The power problem is always short term. We have lots of gas in Rwanda. We have methane gas in Lake Kivu. At the moment we import power from Uganda. But the line from Kampala to Kabale cannot carry more load than that which it currently carries. So we are looking at mini hydro electrical stations to boost the production in the first stopgap measure. But at least we have methane gas. And we are looking at 50 billion cubic metres of methane.

This methane gas is a natural gas that replenishes itself. And that can produce – for many years - up to 560 megawatts of power. It is a big reserve, a big quantity. If you burn it, you can power almost the whole region. Of course, we have the hydropower dam. The power problem is short term. And every investor knows, you can set up an investment and within five or six months, power will not be a problem.

An investor will see that as a short-term challenge.
For the methane project, we are talking about 18 months. We just need to bring pipes, turbines and push them into the lake. So, it would take us, most likely, a minimum of 18 months.

The turbines, the machines that uses the gas, is not as expensive as machinery to build a dam. We need just about $ 30 million, between $30 and $50 million, and we are putting in our own money – may be only 30 percent from a private investor.

We have huge amounts of energy in the lake. It is replaceable. Putting up a dam would take us three to five years.

We are yet to know how much power we will export. But in the short term, we only want to use it in the local market. But we can export to say Uganda. Right now, we are actually exporting to Uganda. I think, we supply to Kisoro. We export 5 megawatts. But we also import 5 megawatts from Uganda. So it cancels out.

It is government policy that Information and Communications Technologies become a pillar of development. That means training of businessmen and businesswomen. We hope that in the long term, they will be transacting business through e-commerce channel, which is cheaper than transacting business physically.

I think Rwanda per see had to take that choice. It was dictated by the times that we are living in. Globalisation means we have to take that choice. What happened is that Rwanda took the initiative to be at par with what was happening globally.

That was a political decision by government. There are many reasons for it. Be it e-commerce, be it agriculture, be it education – there is no way you are going to tap human capital to make the engine of growth without tapping into the ICT. People have to be literate. And they must have the tools for development. Otherwise, you are left out of development.

Rwanda's broad agenda
You could say look here, lets specialise. Because we have a computer, lets make this the engine of economic growth. But one has to look at agriculture, tourism, human development...when you look at Malaysia, or Japan for example – which countries have highly specialised – they have one asset: people; they don't have coffee, oil...Rwanda in the short term and long term will of course develop the people, because it is the people who will produce the tea, the coffee all over the country.

The idea to tell people to go back to school in the evenings is in line with this policy. Vision 2020 is the blue print of development and the Ministry of Commerce has a big role to play in that vision: trading, bringing investments – especially the regional investments, tourism and addressing poverty. Every stakeholder is involved in the development of this country. All those put together are part of this vision.

Of course, there are challenges we find as we try to implement the policies of the ministry, like in any other country. The short-term problems have been power. But we are going to solve that soon. The other problem has been infrastructure. But we have been able to service the road to bring goods from Isaka to Kigali and that through Dar es Salaam.

So infrastructure is also of the short term. Even human capital as we have seen is a short-term problem. So there are many challenges. But they are going away gradually.

Never again to genocide
Indeed what happened was basically because of divisions like you have in many countries. It is a phenomenon that politicians use for their ends. There is no accommodation.

Politics is one thing as a cause of genocide. Economics is another thing. But you see, economics is used to enrich politics. Once you have good economic policies, the economy is usually good. People normally have problems if they don't have anything. When they are hungry, they are easy to manipulate so that they can get something.

If you ensure that everyone has something, they are not easy to manipulate. You don't come and tell them to commit crimes because every one loses. But when they have nothing, that person becomes a problem to the country. So, we are trying to empower people through investments, through cooperatives. And that would diminish the political dimension. So we are using economics to gain political mileage.

How we are going to empower the people is in Vision 2020. We are ten years behind the genocide. The most possible scenario is that we would have superseded all these projections. If we keep growing at this rate, the forecast is very, very good. It is not too ambitious.

Tourism is part of our plan. By June last year, 8,000 people had visited. By June this year, that number had doubled to 17,000 people. That is more 100 percent growth.

The problem with tourism revenue is that you can't know how much a tourist spends on other goods. But it is a substantial amount. And don't forget we go for the high niche. Not the back packers. We don't encourage mass tourism because of environmental reasons. In terms of investment, it should be more than $10 million coming in. In future, we should have more than that.

 

[bm21]

Mwenzetu Richard aliwahi kuipost hii mwaka jana ni Mkakati wa Serikali ya Rwanda waliiita Vision 2020 waliitoa hii riport mwaka 2005. Nashawishika kusema makadilio yote ya gharama ni kwa bei za mwaka 2005.

It is, largely, a two-pronged approach. First to lay down a 1,000-hectares piece of land to be developed into a Free Trade Zone at an estimated $200 million dollars.

And it also involves laying out turbines to produce some 560 megawatts of power for only about $30 million.
.

Mkuu, thats why I always say my country lacks a Strategic Plan that can be easily translated into operational framework documents of which performance appraisal is tied to.