The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a grant of $22.9m to support the rehabilitation of the Kapichira and Nkula B hydropower plants in Malawi, two facilities that together provide about half of the country’s electricity supply.
The grant forms part of a broader $118.7m rehabilitation programme, with additional co-financing expected. The project will focus on Kapichira I, a 64MW plant in Chikwawa District serving southern Malawi, and Nkula B, a 10 MW plant commissioned in 1966 and the country’s oldest major hydropower station. Both plants are operating below capacity due to ageing equipment and damage from recent cyclones.
“This project represents a cornerstone investment in Malawi’s economic transformation,” said Macmillan Anyanwu, African Development Bank’s country manager for Malawi. “By restoring these hydropower plants to optimal performance, we are not just fixing infrastructure – we are unlocking economic potential, creating jobs, and bringing reliable electricity to communities that have struggled with chronic power shortages.”
According to the African Development Fund, the rehabilitation will increase annual electricity generation by an estimated 55%, from 916GWh to 1,426GWh. The work is also expected to extend the operational life of the facilities from about 22 years to 47 years and improve plant availability from around 80% to 95%, reducing forced outages.
Malawi has one of the lowest electricity access rates in Africa, with 25.9% of the population connected to power. Supply constraints worsened in 2022 after Tropical Storm Ana damaged the Kapichira plant, which accounts for roughly 30% of national generation capacity.
The project aligns with Malawi’s Vision 2063 development strategy and the Malawi Energy Compact signed in January 2025 under the Mission 300 initiative, which targets electricity access for 300 million people in Africa by 2030. The programme is expected to support industrial, agricultural, and mining activity by improving supply reliability and reducing reliance on diesel generation.
Malawi’s state-owned Electricity Generation Company will act as the executing agency. Implementation is scheduled to run from March 2026 to December 2030.
The rehabilitation is also intended to strengthen Malawi’s role in regional power markets. Planned outcomes include improved readiness for interconnection with the Southern Africa Power Pool via the Mozambique–Malawi interconnector, potential future linkage to the East Africa Power Pool through a proposed Malawi–Tanzania interconnector, coordination with planned 132kV and 400kV transmission backbone projects, and greater capacity to integrate new generation, including the planned 358MW Mpatamanga hydropower project.
