Business Reporter
THE Regional Energy Regulators Association of Southern Africa (RERA), the Association of Energy Regulators in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, in a meeting held in Windhoek, announced the appointment of Francois Robinson as the interim Executive Director of RERA for a period of six months or until such time that a substantive Executive Director is appointed, in order to ensure business continuity.
Robinson serves in various capacities in the economic, technical, and legal services at the Electricity Control Board of Namibia, as well as at the African Forum of Utility Regulators (AFUR) on the continent.
“He brings a wealth of experience of over 20 years in the energy sector and in particular electricity, making him well-suited to lead the organisation during this transitional period. His deep understanding of the regulatory environment will be invaluable as RERA strives to maintain a credible and leading regulatory organisation internationally and to advance harmonisation of the SADC energy regulatory environment for the development of a sustainable regional energy market,” Skhumbkno Tsabedze, Chairperson of RERA, said.
The Chairperson, explaining some of RERA’s functions, said that the association promotes universal access to modern, clean, reliable, quality, and affordable energy services; and also aims to transform RERA to proactively influence developments in the energy sector.
Robert Kahimise, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said that Namibia reflects these values, as the country has only licensed renewable projects for the past 10 years. This, he said, will contribute to the decrease in carbon emissions, one of the driving factors of climate change.
Further to this, Kahimise said that the Namibian government does not make any profits from the electricity sector.
“We have not seen any government subsidy apart from the latest subsidy announced earlier this year. The electricity industry is supposed to sustain itself; the sustainability of this sector is ensured through the regulator. It’s not that the government makes additional revenue from electricity; this is also the same with water. The intention is for the industry to sustain itself. We are cognisant of the affordability issues in Namibia, that’s why the government came in earlier this year,” Kahimise said.
The government, in July this year, resolved to make approximately N$365 million available to subsidise electricity consumers for the 2024/25 financial year, effective 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, which effectively staved off an 8% electricity tariff increase.
“All that I want to emphasise is that there is no intention from the government to make profits from electricity, except for taxes. We manage the cost through subsidies. All the SADC countries that are not cost-reflective on electricity sustain the cost of supplies through subsidies. The government is putting money in to ensure basic services are available. We are trying to do what we can to achieve government objectives,” Kahimise said.
