The African Development Fund (ADF) Board of Directors has approved a US$22.9 million grant for the rehabilitation of Malawi’s Kapitjila and Nukula B hydropower stations, marking a transformative investment in the country’s energy future.
The US$118.7 million initiative, with co-financing opportunities, will invest in Kapicilla I (64MW), located in the Chikwawa district and serving the southern region, and Malawi’s oldest major hydropower plant, built in 1966. The project will rehabilitate two critical power generation facilities in Nkura B (100MW), which currently provide about half of Malawi’s electricity, despite operating well below capacity due to aging infrastructure and recent cyclone damage.
Macmillan Anyanwu, Country Manager for Malawi at the African Development Bank, said: “This project is a foundational investment in Malawi’s economic transformation.” “By restoring these hydropower plants to optimal performance, we are not only repairing infrastructure, but also unlocking economic potential, creating jobs, and delivering reliable power to communities suffering from chronic power shortages.”
The renovation will increase annual power generation by 55% (from 916 GWh to 1,426 GWh) and extend the operational life of the aging facility from 22 to 47 years. The power plant’s performance is expected to increase from 80% to 95%, effectively eliminating forced power outages that have plagued Malawi’s electricity supply.
Malawi faces severe energy poverty. Only 25.9% of the population has access to electricity, which has one of the lowest rates in Africa. The situation worsened in 2022, when Tropical Storm Ana severely damaged the Capichilla power plant, which accounts for 30% of the country’s power generation capacity.
The project directly supports Malawi’s Vision 2063 and the Malawi Energy Compact, signed in January 2025 under the Mission 300 initiative, which aims to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030. Beyond the numbers, reliable electricity enables agriculture, mining and manufacturing to expand, reduces business costs associated with diesel generators and power outages, improves health care delivery and education outcomes, and supports Malawi’s urbanization goals and regional integration. Southern Africa’s power pool, and at its core is climate resilience.
A government-owned power generation company will be the implementing agency, and implementation is scheduled to run from March 2026 to December 2030. This reconstruction project will enable Malawi to take advantage of future opportunities in the region. These include connectivity to the Southern Africa Power Pool via the Mozambique-Malawi interconnector, potential integration with the East African Power Pool via the proposed Malawi-Tanzania interconnector, synergies with planned transmission infrastructure upgrades (132kV on the eastern trunk and 400kV on the western trunk), and enhanced capacity to absorb additional generation from the upcoming 358MW Mpatamanga hydropower station.
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