Electrification an urgent priority

Economic and social development in many areas of Mozambique is deadlocked because only about five percent of the population has access to regular electricity supplies, the Mozambique news agency, AIM, reported on Monday. In a dispatch from the capital, Maputo, AIM quoted the National Director of Energy, Casimiro Francisco, as saying the government was preparing a survey of the existing sources of power countrywide so as to set up a new network across the nation. Although negotiations were underway with the World Bank for financial assistance with the programme, he said prices for electricity had to be "more realistic" if the country was to attract new investment capital.