Subsidies ensure Tanzanians have cheapest electricity in East Africa

Judith Kapinga, Tanzania’s Deputy Minister of Energy, recently disclosed that electricity tariff in the country is cheaper than the rest of East Africa.

According to her, the reason for this is the subsidy the government pays to cut costs for consumers, as reported by the Tanzanian newspaper, The Citizen.

She made the revelation on Friday, as she stood in front of Tanzanian MPs, who wanted a status report on the Julius Nyerere Hydro Power Project.

The parliamentary members had asked her if electricity production at the plant would reduce the cost of electricity for the Tanzanian people, to which she insisted that government subsidies already ensures that Tanzanians boast the cheapest electricity cost in the east African region.

“Honorable speaker, the current electricity price already includes government subsidies with the average subsidized rate being Sh100 per unit for ordinary users for up to 75 units per month as compared to Sh292 per unit without government subsidy,” she revealed.

This Sh292 is compared to Sh320 consumers would have to pay without the subsidy.

In June, data from an energy progress report was published, showing that Tanzania has one of the largest populations lacking access to electricity in Africa.

The report, which was a collaborative initiative between the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and the World Bank and other partners, showed that 36 million people in the country lack access to electricity.