The impact of electricity supply in Malawi on Economic Development

Abstract

The need for electrical infrastructure development in Malawi has to be revisited as the population growth and demand for electricity is increasing. In achieving the outcome of this study time series data from the year 1991-2014 has been used. In application of ARDL approach the results shows that load shading occurs periodically as results of high demand in electricity and low supply. It has been seen that the country has only few power generators which produce electricity in small quantity which does not meet the required demand. It has been seen that there might have been a long-run relationship between power utilization and GDP per capita in the country. The economy is mostly dependent on energy for manufacturing sector and other sectors to function productively and contribute to the economic growth. Keywords: Economy, Electricity, Growth, Infrastructure, Manufacturing