The Ministry of Energy has been implementing Malawi Rural Electrification Programme (MAREP) with an aim of increasing access to electricity for the rural and peri-urban areas in order to transform the rural economies and reduce poverty amongst the rural masses and contribute to Government’s agenda on poverty reduction. The Programme started in the 1980s with Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Ltd as the implementing entity. The program was implemented through own financing and donor funding. Following the reforms in the electricity sector in 1998, ESCOM Ltd was commercialized and mandated to operate as a commercial unit. ESCOM Ltd established that rural electrification was not economically viable and consequently could not continue implementing MAREP. Confronted with the responsibility of providing social services to the rural societies, Malawi Government decided to take over the implementation of rural electrification activities by mandating the Ministry responsible for Energy under the Department of Energy Affairs to plan and implement MAREP.

In 2004, Government enacted a Rural Electrification Act with a view to providing a legal framework within which rural electrification activities could be implemented. The Act created the Rural Electrification Management Committee (REMAC) to oversee the activities of MAREP. The Act mandated REMAC to ensure that the majority of the Malawian population in peri-urban and rural areas have access to efficient, sustainable, reliable and affordable energy for their social-economic development through grid extension and offgrid electricity supply. The Rural Electrification Unit, within the Ministry was mandated to act as Secretariat for REMAC and perform day to day implementation and coordination of rural electrification activities in the country. The Act also established the Rural Electrification Fund which gets replenished mainly from a levy on energy sales and concession fees.

The Ministry started with construction of MAREP Phase IV in 2002 and was completed in May 2007 with a total of 97 trading centers electrified. MAREP phase V electrified 27 trading centers across the country and was completed in 2009. In Phase VII, MAREP implemented 54 trading centres, two centres in each of the 27 Districts except Likoma which is fully electrified. All the sites are fully commissioned by ESCOM which handles the operation and maintenance works after the constructions are completed.