15 Mar 2020

Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Mr Machana Shamukuni says the energy sector is critical to the economy of the country and has the potential to improve the quality of life.

He said when giving a keynote address at the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) annual strategic review retreat in Kasane recenty that it was therefore in the best interest of the government to ensure energy supplies were cleaner, secure and sustainable.

Mr Shamukuni said it was also the duty of government to ensure that energy services were accessible, reliable, and affordable to all.

He said therefore the expectation was that BERA would transform the energy regulation in this country to a more diverse, relevant and robust corporate strategy that would drive government priorities.

Mr Shamukuni explained that though BERA young, the institution had made great strides in its regulatory space.

Such milestones included; issuance of licenses, the latest being licenses for generation plants to three companies, inspection of 140 facilities as well as reviewing electricity tariffs and assessing fuel pump prices in relation to international markets and trends.

He said as of last year, BERA had started participating in the Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI), which was a survey conducted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) for Africa.  

ERI aims to shed light on the nature and development of the energy and power sectors of Africa using a number of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

However, Mr Shamukuni said Botswana’s rankings was not impressive in as far as strategic positioning and competitiveness in energy regulation within Africa was  concerned.

Mr Shamukuni said as a form of corrective measure, a representative of the AfDB had been engaged to provide in-depth analysis on Botswana’s performance in light of the index and highlight areas that needed improvement.

The bank, he noted, would also provide insight on African energy regulation performance particularly on strategies that Botswana could adopt as a benchmark from other African states who were doing well in the energy regulatory sector.

He also said it was important for BERA team to come up with strategies that would create an enabling regulatory environment to stimulate private sector participation in the renewable and cleaner energy sources.

Giving a vote of thanks, BERA CEO, Ms Rose Seretse said the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology  was an important stakeholder to the authority as it provided the necessary resources, particularly the human capital and the research.

Ms Seretse however highlighted problem areas such as illegal exportation of fuel, lack of quality assurance systems and lack of compliance to set laws by industry players.

“We expect the industry players to cooperate with the authority in this regard,” she said, adding that the issue of regulation needed concerted efforts from all stakeholders.  Ends