Deputy Minister of Energy, Mrs. Judith Kapinga has said that the Government through the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) expects to connect the cooking gas system to approximately 865 houses in Mtwara region in areas that have gas pipeline infrastructure.
Ms. Kapinga said this, May 13, 2025 in parliament in Dodoma while responding to a question by the Member of Parliament for Special Seats, Ms. Tunza Malipo who wanted to know the Government’s strategy in connecting gas to Institutions and Citizens’ Houses in Mtwara region for cooking.
“In Mtwara Region, the Government has deployed natural gas distribution infrastructure in some areas where a total of 425 houses and four (4) Institutions have been connected to the natural gas consumption network in Mtwara urban areas”, said Ms. Kapinga
He added that, in the 865 houses that will be connected to the system, the Government has already done the engineering design for the connection stage.
He clarified that, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Dr. Dotto Biteko has already instructed the Rural Energy Agency (REA) and TPDC to collaborate to speed up the connection of natural gas to the people of Mtwara and Lindi.
Responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Temeke, Mrs. Dorothy Kilave who asked about the Government seeing the importance of speeding up the connection of gas to markets such as Sterio, Temeke, Keko and Mtoni for Mama Lishe and Baba Lishe?
Mrs. Kapinga said the Government has a strategy through TPDC to connect natural gas to various areas of Dar es Salaam City and added that for the markets that the Honourable Member has mentioned, the Government has taken and will go to evaluate them.
The Member of Parliament for Momba, Mr. Kondesta Sichwale on his part asked about the issue of subsidized cylinders reaching a small number of citizens and advised the Government to send subsidy cylinders to Ward executives so that each citizen can collect them there with their NIDA ID.
Ms. Kapinga said the Government is starting to distribute approximately 420,000 subsidy cylinders where the procedure is for each citizen to collect a gas cylinder using their NIDA number or NIDA ID to enable one citizen to get one cylinder.
He said the Government also allocated 3,255 cylinders to each District as a starting point for the clean cooking energy strategy where he assured Members of Parliament that the strategy is ten years and sustainable.
Ms. Kapinga added that within ten years 80 percent of Tanzanians will be using clean cooking energy which is the vision of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan.
