Madagascar: faced with incessant power cuts, the government explains

Madagascar, January 11, 2021: In the capital, Anatananarivo, candle-lit dinners have made a comeback in homes usually connected to electricity.

Blame it on the persistent load shedding.

© Sarah Tetaud/RFI

Text by: Laetitia Bezain Follow

2 mins

In Madagascar, rotating load shedding in the capital and power cuts in the regions of the Big Island are back.

In question, among other things, the lack of fuel to run the power plants of Jirama, the public electricity company.

If users are used to living with power cuts, in recent days, they have greatly intensified.

This weekend, the Minister of Energy and Hydrocarbons took the floor, notably on various national television channels, to explain the critical situation in which the public electricity production and distribution company finds itself.

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From our correspondent in Antananarivo,

Power cuts affect

and in some cases last nearly five hours a day.

Companies and small businesses forced to cease their activities.

The rest of the island is not spared either.

While users are increasingly exasperated, the Minister of Energy and Hydrocarbons Andry Ramaroson first invokes " 

 " since the start of the war in Ukraine.

This puts a further strain on Jirama's finances and reduces its ability to purchase fuel to run its power plants.

It is also the arm wrestling between the oil companies and the Malagasy State which is blocking.

The Minister evokes " 

 " between the two parties: the negotiations on the new structure of prices at the pump and the arrears of the Malagasy State towards the latter have not yet succeeded.

These arrears amount to more than 200 billion ariary (about 46 million euros).

For the time being, no more fuel requisitions from the oil companies, which is why the public electricity company supplies itself directly at the pump in certain regions, explains Andry Ramaroson.

Contacted, the secretary general of the group of tankers of Madagascar has not yet reacted.

Jirama 's deputy general manager in charge of electricity, Désiré Marcel Randrianarisoa, recalled that

, the country's largest, at the start of the year also created a lack of significant production of 49 megawatts.

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• Madagascar

• Energies