Cabinda: The Angolan government will allocate 800 million US dollars by 2027 to connect Cabinda province, located in northern Angola, to the national electricity grid. This announcement was made by Rui Gourgel, the CEO of the National Transmission Network (RNT), on Friday.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the project involves laying a submarine cable from the municipality of Soyo (Zaire) to Cabinda province, with the installation expected to commence in the first half of 2025 and conclude over a two-year period. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to enhance the electricity supply to Cabinda.
RNT’s CEO, Rui Gourgel, also revealed two additional projects that could potentially improve electricity access in the future. These projects involve electricity interconnections from the Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and from Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo. Gourgel emphasized that Angola, as a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), seeks to leverage opp
ortunities for electricity interconnection with neighboring countries.
The overarching goal of these projects is to eliminate the substantial costs currently incurred by the Angolan government in supplying electricity to Cabinda. Presently, the region relies on gas and diesel thermal power stations for its electricity needs, which are costly to maintain.
Macário Lembe, Cabinda’s deputy governor for the economic sector, commented on the anticipated positive impact of the interconnection on the region’s socio-economic development. The integration into the national grid is expected to provide a significant boost to the local economy and improve the overall quality of life for residents of Cabinda.