The announcement was made this Tuesday, following a meeting that the holder of the Energy and Water portfolio held on Monday with Tom Allweendo, Namibian Minister of Mines and Energy. Quoted by Angop, Baptistas Borges said that the agreement will be signed by the Presidents of both countries, whose action will conclude the reciprocal commitment to the implementation of this project.
This meeting will be preceded by another between the responsible ministries, namely Energy and Water and Mines and Energy of Namibia.
On the occasion, the minister said that this project is essential to expand the electricity grid, as well as promoting energy exchanges between both countries and also with other countries belonging to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), including Botswana and Africa of the South, to which Namibia already maintains an interconnection.
According to the Minister of Energy and Water, the meeting served to approve the public financing model. However, this document must still be sent to the heads of state for consideration.
Baptista Borges added that in the case of public financing, they will have one year to mobilize sources of financing "under favorable conditions" to move this project forward.
"If it is public financing, we will have one year to mobilize sources of financing under favorable conditions to carry out this work as quickly as possible, given that 16 years have passed since the two States took such an initiative to build the project," he said, cited by Angop.
Regarding the project's budget, the minister said that the initial forecast of around 1.3 billion dollars will not change, explaining that the final value will depend on the outcome of the public tender to hire the company that will carry out the project.
Remember that the value of the expense will be shared by both countries, as both Angola and Namibia will benefit from half of the energy produced.
Still on the meeting with his Namibian counterpart, the minister said that the decision was also taken to urgently complete the environmental impact study, at a time when the country has already decided to finish the road that will connect the Port of Namibe to Baynes, passing through the Yona, on a section essential for the start of the project, writes Angop.
On the occasion, the Namibian minister, Tom Allweendo, reinforced the fact that the completion of this project will enable the expansion of the network to the SADC market, as well as stimulating the economic and industrial growth of the countries in this region.
Quoted by Angop, he also said that taking into account the current value of electricity, both countries considered it feasible to finance the project using public rather than private funds.
It should be noted that at the meeting between the two ministers, a pre-implementation agreement was also initialed.
