TOSHIBA OFFERS GEOTHERMAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR MW – Malawi News Online

In support of geothermal energy development in Malawi, Toshiba has offered a scholarship to one Malawian to study geothermal and hydro power in Japan.

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. Hailed as clean and sustainable, resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth’s surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.

Last week, during a meeting with a Malawi Government delegation, Toshiba President, Satoshi Tsukanawa said the firm wishes to strengthen the development of energy sector in Malawi by building capacity of human resource in the sector. “Toshiba is increasing its focus on Africa, including Malawi and we are going to support in the area of geothermal and hydro power systems,” he said, on the sidelines of Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad 7) in Yokohama, Japan.

The development happens after Malawi has been making various plans to reform and improve the energy sector in Malawi. The Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) has stated that Treasury’s spending in the energy sector is (verbatim) too little and insignificant. Ecama has therefore attributed power outages to the inadequate expenditure on the energy sector.

According to Ecama’s analysis which was presented at the first pre-budget consultation meeting for the 2019/20 National Budget in Lilongwe, Treasury’s budget allocation as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) has remained below 1% between 2016/17 and 2018/19 fiscal years.