Maputo, Mozambique – Forty three percent of Mozambique’s 227 petrol stations are located in Maputo, the deputy energy minister, Jaime Himade said Thursday in Maputo.

Himade said however that this situation would change as the government planned to expand the network of petrol stations across the country and that there were investors interested in opening them in some rural districts.

Himade was speaking during a seminar held in Maputo on the safety regulations for for petrol stations, with the Energy Ministry planning to update those regulations, which date back to 1958 and 1962.

The president of the National Energy Fund (Funae), Miquelina Menezes, recently told Mozambican news agency AIM that the government would invest around US$3 million in setting up solar-powered petrol stations in some rural districts.

She added that initially 20 of those petrol stations would be built in the provinces of Sofala, Manica, Cabo Delgado and Niassa.