Tanzania electricity connections: CRDB Bank takes on the TZS27,000 fee in rural areas

TANESCO and CRDB Bank have launched a scheme in which the bank pays the TZS27,000 connection fee for households in rural Tanzania, and urban customers can spread their connection costs in instalments. Vice President Deogratius Ndejembi attended the signing in Dar es Salaam on 2 October.

At the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam on 2 October, Vice President Deogratius Ndejembi was guest of honour as TANESCO and CRDB Bank signed a scheme for Tanzania electricity connections. Under it, the bank pays the TZS27,000 connection fee for rural households directly to the utility, with nothing for them to repay.

Urban customers, whose single-phase connections of under 30 metres cost TZS320,960, can spread that cost in instalments. According to the Daily News, the scheme is designed to reach 500,000 customers a year in rural and peri-urban areas.

Ndejembi told guests at the launch that “electricity is a service closely linked to development”, and that power has to “reach the final consumer in hospitals, factories, homes and businesses”.

The figures he presented put all 12,318 of Tanzania’s villages on electricity, against 506 in 2007. They also put 33,657 of its 64,359 hamlets on electricity, with the remaining 30,702 to follow before 2030.

TANESCO’s managing director, Lazaro Twange, and CRDB Bank’s managing director, Abdulmajid Nsekela, both spoke at the signing, with Nsekela confirming the bank’s financial commitment to the scheme.

Ambassador Zuhura Bundala, vice-chairperson of TANESCO’s board, said the programme would bring new jobs and business to the communities it reaches while “improving the learning environment”.

Images: TANESCO