16. October 2019
On their first day in Oslo, Mr. Ali Khalil Hassan Mirza, Permanent Secretary and Eng. Mohammed Abdulla Mohammed, Director of Energy and Minerals met with Grethe Bergly, CEO of Multiconsult at Multiconsults office in Oslo.
– We are pleased to welcome this distinguished delegation to Multiconsult. Multiconsult has worked for more than 20 years on renewable energy in Zanzibar and are proud to contribute to facilitation of clean and sustainable energy in Zanzibar and the East-African region, said Multiconsults CEO Grethe Bergly.
A hectic program
During their visit the delegation met with Mr. Kjetil Lund, Director General of NVE, as well as representatives from and Hafslund and the Municipality of Oslo to discuss various energy related topics such as the Norwegian power market and the regulator’s role. They also met with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to discuss the recent progress in the energy sector in Zanzibar.
On the 8th October both delegates visited the Nordic-African Business Summit, the Nordic region’s leading business conference focusing exclusively on African markets, where Mr. Mirza participated in a round table discussion on the energy sector in Africa.
– We very much appreciates the strong support from the Government of Sweden and Multiconsult in building a sustainable energy sector for the future, said Mr Mirza.
Strengthening the Energy Sector in Zanzibar
In addition to external meetings, the delegation also found time for discussions with a number of Multiconsult experts on key challenges for the power sector in Zanzibar. Only half of households on Zanzibar have access to electricity and energy demand is increasing rapidly. Currently, all grid-connected power on Zanzibar is supplied from mainland Tanzania through sub-sea cables, but the Government is now in the process of attracting private investments in solar power.
– We are proud of the considerable sector progress that Multiconsult, through ZESS and a number of other projects going back decades, has helped enable on Zanzibar said Ingar Flatlandsmo, Senior Energy Advisor and ZESS Project Manager.
In 2016, Multiconsult won the Zanzibar Energy Sector Support Project. The project, funded by the Swedish international development agency SIDA, aims to develop new legislation, as well as strengthening management, systems and planning within the Ministry and at the state-owned Zanzibar Electricity Corporation (ZECO). The project will be completed in 2019. Multiconsult has previously served as Owners´ Engineer for the subsea cable from Mainland Tanzania to the Pemba – the northern island.