Nampula, Mozambique, Dec. 22, 2025 (Lusa) - Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM) recorded losses of around €6.6 million in 2025 in the northern province of Nampula, resulting from operational constraints and vandalism of infrastructure, the company announced on Monday.
"We lost [around] 496 million meticais during this whole process. Perhaps this figure could have helped us to expand, to make improvements and to connect other customers who still need energy at this point," said Cristiano Neves, EDM's director of operations in Nampula, during a press conference.
According to Neves, part of the losses is associated with the vandalism of electrical infrastructure, whose financial impact currently stands at around eight million meticais (€106,000).
Despite the difficulties encountered throughout the year, EDM managed to exceed the targets set for new connections to the electricity grid in Nampula province, Cristiano Neves said.
"We got off to a bad start with the new connections, but we have now reached a compliance level of 110%," said the director of operations, adding that 77,000 new connections to the electricity system were planned, a figure that has already been exceeded, with 81,000 customers currently hooked up to the grid.
"This makes us happy in terms of meeting our targets, even with the initial constraints of 2025," he said.
Over the last four years, the company has recorded accumulated losses of €3.9 million due to vandalism and theft of electrical equipment, which ends up on the black market. More than 300 illegal scrap yards selling these materials have been identified, according to the state-owned company.
Mozambique has previously warned of the growth of an organised and transnational criminal network dedicated to the theft of electrical equipment, calling for collective efforts by countries in southern Africa, with countries such as South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania and Eswatini already adopting measures, including a ban on the export of copper scrap and the criminalisation of vandalism of electrical infrastructure.
Data from the state-owned company show that the province of Zambezia, in central Mozambique, tops the list of cases of electrical equipment theft, followed by Inhambane, in the south of the country.
On 2 September, EDM recorded losses of around 17 million meticais (€227,000) resulting from theft and vandalism of electrical transformers this year, with at least five people arrested in Nampula.
EYMZ/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
