The Government of Malawi unbundled  a vertically intergrated power market  which had ESCOM as the sole power utility in the country, monopolizing the generation, transmission and distribution of power. The unbundling of ESCOM gave rise to two companies- one responsible for generation (EGENCO) and the residual ESCOM for transmission and distribution to ensure a leveled playing field in power trading and provide third party access to transmission lines for all generation companies in the country. This is aimed to spur development in the power sector and in the short to medium term, increase the power generation capacity as well as the overall efficiency of the power market in the country