Tanzania's power sector, while being unable to provide power for the entire country, boasts one of the cheapest electricity prices in Africa. According to a recent revelation, Tanzania has the cheapest electricity tariff in all of East Africa. This is thanks to government subsidies.
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.
Tanzania's electricity problems
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.
Of the top 10 African countries with the largest population lacking electricity, it ranked number four coming in behind Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
Despite this, the country had earlier this year boasted plans to become a leading manufacturer of electrical equipment, albeit the plan geared towards diversifying its economy rather than its electrical infrastructure.
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