Mozambique : gas-fired power plant to boost development in Chokwé

Chokwé district, rural area in Gaza province in Mozambique, is moving steadily towards the establishment of 78-megawatt gas-fired mobile thermal power plant.

Expected to be developed in the first semester 2018, the plant will cost in total 180 million US$. It will be helpful to provide power to industry projects including heavy sands and agricultural as well as community development projects .

The Mozambique based company Kuikila Investments, in its effort to close financing, gained grant from the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to support the feasibility study for the plant.

In the sideline of the 16th Forum of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), on 10 August in Lome, the capital of Togo, the parties inked the grant agreement.

USTDA’s Acting Director Thomas R. Hardy and Diogo Vaz Guedes, Chairman and CEO of Kuikila Investments, signed documentation relating to the grant that Carlos Dos Santos, Mozambique ambassador to the US, witnessed.

Mr. Carlos Dos Santos welcomed the grant agreement and said the project will “strengthen power quality” that, for now, is not good enough in the area.

He told Rutilance.com that the project will be developed in an important region of agriculture including sugar cane culture and will provide power to support irrigation and agro-industry.

Commenting on this, Mr. Thomas R. Hardy said the grant will enable Mozambique to get domestic gas-fired power project "online expeditiously".

“At the same time, the project creates opportunities for a significant amount of U.S. equipment exports”, he added.

In fact, the 180 million US$ needed will be financed to “the amount of 30% by the shareholders and 70% by loans from banks”, Diogo Vaz Guedes told Rutilance.com.

Already, Delphos International Ltd, a financial services firm based in Washington, D.C., has been selected by Kuikila to conduct the expected feasibility study.