By Charles Mkoka
Mainstream — Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) is expected to play a pivotal role in strengthening electricity supply, supporting industrial expansion and attracting investment as the country moves to meet rising energy demand.
Commissioner for Electricity and Renewable Energy Innocent Luoga said the 2,115-megawatt project has significantly increased the country’s generation capacity and is helping to provide a more reliable electricity supply.
Luoga made the remarks in an interview on TBC1’s Aridhio programme, where he discussed developments in Tanzania’s energy sector and the strategic importance of the JNHPP.
He said the project was particularly important because reliable electricity was essential for expanding industries, creating jobs and reducing the concentration of economic opportunities in urban centres.
“With reliable electricity, opportunities will increasingly spread across the country, reducing the pressure that drives people from rural areas to cities in search of employment,” Luoga said.
He said Tanzania had already connected all 12,318 villages to electricity and was now expanding access to smaller settlements and individual households.
According to Luoga, the JNHPP alone accounts for about 44.8% of electricity generated in the national grid, underscoring its importance to the country’s power system.
He said the project had helped Tanzania overcome the power shortages experienced in previous years, adding that the country had not faced a generation shortfall of a similar scale since the plant began contributing significantly to the grid.
The government is also completing a 400-kilovolt transmission line stretching about 354 kilometres from Chalinze through Morogoro to Dodoma, which Luoga said would enable electricity generated at JNHPP to reach major industrial and mining areas across the country.
From Dodoma, he said, the transmission network would support electricity supply to the Lake Zone, including Tabora, Shinyanga, Mwanza and Bukoba, where major mining and industrial activities are concentrated.
The network will also extend towards Mbeya, Songwe and Tunduma, strengthening power supply to the Southern Highlands and facilitating electricity exports to neighbouring Zambia through the Tunduma corridor.
Luoga said the increased availability of reliable electricity should give manufacturers greater confidence to expand production and invest in additional machinery.
He urged industrialists and investors to take advantage of the improved power supply by expanding their operations and creating more employment opportunities.
“Reliable electricity gives investors the confidence to increase production, expand factories and create more jobs,” he said.
For ordinary Tanzanians, Luoga said the benefits would extend beyond electricity availability. Reliable power would help businesses operate more consistently, while lower dependence on expensive fuel-powered generation would help contain production costs.
He cited small businesses emerging in rural areas, including welding workshops, salons, pharmacies and other enterprises that depend on electricity, as examples of how wider access to power was creating new economic opportunities.
He also pointed to social benefits, saying reliable electricity was supporting schools, health facilities, places of worship and water-pumping systems.
Luoga said the government was continuing to extend electricity beyond villages to hamlets and individual households, with the aim of ensuring that access to power translates into broader economic and social development.
The JNHPP, located in Rufiji, is Tanzania’s largest power-generation project and forms part of the government’s strategy to strengthen energy security and support the objectives of the National Development Vision 2050.
