Nigeria Content Online

The U.S. government
Millennium Challenge Corporation has given Malawi a $350 million grant
to overhaul its energy sector, whose dire condition is a major brake on
the African state’s economic growth.

A U.S. statement
said the five-year grant should help improve Malawi’s erratic power
supply, which economists say costs the country about $215 million a
year and deters new investment.

According to its
energy ministry, Malawi had 63 days of power outages in 2009, one of
the worst performances in the sub-Saharan region.

Its current
installed electricity capacity is 282.5 MW compared to estimated demand
of 344 MW, and only seven per cent of the 13 million population have
access to electricity, with the rest relying on firewood and charcoal
for energy.