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Tanesco: A new, better electricity parastatal? (Part 2)
The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) headquarters, Dar es Salaam. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- ‘Our’ Tanesco went through difficult times down the years, surviving on largesse/subsidies from the Government and development partners.
- Tanesco has been profitable in the last few years, and paying dividends to the Government.
In the first Part of this tale, I told readers that Tanesco (Tanzania Electric Power Supply Company) is a parastatal institution tasked with the production of – or otherwise securing – electric power, transmitting same and delivering/supplying it to end-consumers.
The company was formally established in 1964, replacing its predecessors, the Tanganyika Electric Power Supply Company formed in 1931 by ‘British colonialists,’ and the Dar es Salaam Electric Supply Company (Daresco).
Daresco was formed by ‘German colonialists’ in 1908 to supply power from an 8-Horse-Power electric generator to the local railway station, strategic shops, offices and homes of principal German administrators.
‘Our’ Tanesco went through difficult times down the years, surviving on largesse/subsidies from the Government and development partners.
And – perhaps as the legendary Three Sisters of Fate would have it – ‘our’ Tanesco got embroiled/immersed in fake and otherwise scandalous deals in its areas of operations several years back.
But stakeholders (the Government) and development partners – including Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) – smartly stepped in the yawning breach… and SAVED the situation!
The Government converted Tanesco’s debt into Equity, and made strategic changes whose definitively positive results are already tangible. Tanesco has been profitable in the last few years, and paying dividends to the Government. With a historic income of Sh2.28trn in FY-2021/22, the company’s net profit rose from Sh45.246bn in FY-2019/20 to Sh77.144bn in FY-2020/21, then soared to Sh109.454bn in FY-2021/22!
In addition, Tanesco’s assets rose in value from Sh17.295trn in FY-2020/21 to Sh19.573trn in FY-2021/22. [For details, See ‘Reforms working as Tanesco nets Sh2.3trn income;’ The Citizen, August 01, 2023].
But, all has not been that well for Tanesco, generally speaking. The severe drought in 1994 resulted in electricity shortages as hydro-power catchment areas dried-up. Consequently, Tanesco sought emergency solutions – which pertly led to the scandals.
Esteemed readers may recall Press and other reports on ‘investing’ billions of US dollars in Tanzania’s Energy sector by developers who were eventually shown to be unscrupulous… At least!
Names like ‘Tegeta Escrow,’ ‘Symbion Power (SPL) and ‘Pan-African Power Ltd (PAP) readily come to mind. Nor can one forget the roles played – KNOWINGLY or UNKNOWINGLY – in these shenanigans by such ‘actors’ as Independent Power-Tanzania (IPTL); VIP Engineering and Marketing (VIP-EM); ‘Harbinder the Kalasinga;’ Mechmar (Malasyia) Corpn; Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) Bank; Standard Chartered Malaysia Bank (BERHAD), etc.
To start with the Tegeta Escrow… A relatively whopping Sh306bn was illegally siphoned off an account at the Central Bank of Tanzania (BoT) in or about 2014. The Escrow was jointly opened by Tanesco and IPTL, jointly owned by Mechmar-Malasyia (70 percent) and VIP-EM (30 percent).
The scandal finally cost the AG and other principal Government officials their jobs… [For details, see ‘Tegeta Escrow will go down in history as a major scandal; The Citizen; January 01, 2015; and April 20, 2021].
But, all that is steadily becoming History – what with the likes of MCL working in close association-cum-cooperation with Tanesco – all in the interests of the country and its otherwise hapless population…
By the way, this is not to mention other MCL partners like the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation [FAO: see ‘Chumvi iliyopitiliza ni hatari kwa afya yako; Mwananchi, Feb, 23, 2023]) But, that is a tale fit to be told another day …
The close MCL/Tanesco working association… Sorry; I’ve run out of editorial space here…
