Secretary to the Treasury, Evans Chibiliti says Zambia may not achieve the projected seven per cent economic growth rate this year if the power outages the country is currently experiencing are not resolved soon.
And Mr. Chibiliti has called for concerted efforts in immediately finding solutions to the prevailing electricity shortage in the country, saying the issue of power deficit was not only a government and ZESCO challenge, but an economical problem.
He said a prolonged electricity deficit would derail Zambia’s efforts to attain a middle-income country status.
He was speaking in Kafue today soon after touring the Kafue Gorge Power station.
Mr. Chibiliti said the delay in resolving the power crisis which Zambia and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries are faced with has a negative bearing on the economic prosperity of the nation and the Zambian people.
Earlier, Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary (PS), Peter Mumba, called on government to consider pumping more funds in the energy sector.
Mr. Mumba cited neighbouring Namibia and South Africa as countries that have heavily invested in their energy sectors in order to cushion the current electricity blues.
He however said, with the pace at which government, ZESCO and other cooperating partners were working, the restoration of electricity supply at full capacity would surely be guaranteed.
Mr. Chibiliti, Mr. Mumba, ZESCO Managing Director, Rodnie Sisala, senior ZESCO and officials from the ministry of Energy, and ministry of Finance and National Planning are on a 2-day familiarisation tour of the Kafue Gorge Power station.
The team will also tour the Kariba North Bank power station in Siavonga.
call in the private sector to build power stations. Government has no money
With all respect, but the government has plenty of money.
What is needed is a lack of corruption in construction and finances. And an end to appointing family members to executive positions in state enterprises. There have to be systems that funnel the best and brightest into positions of executive power, instead of basing appointments on political loyalty (which is what the appointment of family members is all about).
There should be a depoliticalisation of the civil service in general.
Money can be made available by reducing the number of ministries to 10-12, having systems to follow up on construction jobs and government procurement (which wastes an estimated $200mn per year), etc. Give more oversight power to parliamentary commissions like the PAC, in effect devolving power from the presidency to parliament and the civil service.
Rodney Sisala has failed to run ZESCO and should resign.
You’re all correct, and there are even more reasons for this deplorable state of affairs in our country today, but what is being done to redress the situation? So far, I can’t see any tangible action apart from talk, talk, talk!
We are too dependent on hydro electricity. Its time we invested in solar energy and any other I am pursuing. We have enough sun rays and some institutions needs a double source and in that way we cut on the dependence on ZESCO and the government.
Good management is required of the these rivers too. Government thru the forestry department must step up.
How can Zambia grow like this…….
ORLANDO, Fla. — Authorities are searching for two sisters, with ties to Zambia, accused of stealing credit card numbers from dozens of hotel customers on Orlando’s popular International Drive.
Agents with the U.S. Secret Service said Stacey Chota, 31, and Chanda Chickwanda, 32, targeted workers at the Sheraton World Resort on I-Drive.
“They had violated or compromised 83 different access devices which are credit card numbers and committed about $73,000 in fraud,” U.S. Secret Service representative Jim Glendinning said. “The potential loss was about $165,000.”
Chota and Chickwanda have been on the run after being indicted on charges of mail fraud and t
Both were scheduled for a jury trial in December of 2006 but jumped bail, police said.
Chickwanda was last seen working at Ross Dress For Less and Bed, Bath and Beyond stores in the I-Drive area, investigators said.
Officers said both women have many aliases and are adept at changing their identity.
The mother of both of the sisters lives in Orlando, so investigators said there is a real possibility that they are still in the area and living under assumed names.
Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of the sisters is urged to call Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.
Chibiliti is a brilliant man, so I expect him to mop up all the necessary Government resources required to invest in the energy sector and do it yesterday because he fully understands the economic impact of this crisis. Unfortunately, the people we have entrusted to run that entity at the moment are not strategic thinkers and do not see beyond their pockets, thereby failing to plan for this energy crisis even when they saw it coming as far back as 2005.
#7 & #8 Julie
Aren`t those Pragmatist`s concubines?
#8 Julie. I am afraid that is all too common amongst the new crop of Africans that are finding their way into Europe and North America these days. In the dim and distant past the only type of African you found in these parts were intelligent student types, sponsored by their governments or the likes of ZCCM. This type of African was scholarly and hard working. Alas that has now changed. Now you get a lot of illegal immigrants with dubious characters. I suppose they reflect the new Africa, where no one wants to work, but everyone wants to be rich!
what is the best stock brokerage company in zambia? Are they slow at doing business for individuals?
“He said a prolonged electricity deficit would derail Zambia’s efforts to attain a middle-income country status.”
Is this a sign of excuses to come?
What were the comments by IMF regarding ZESCO?
Ba Pansaka (10),
Those could be Chapi’s sexual extensions instead.Ba Pragmatist’s wife is a serious rising scientist Zambia may soon be benefiting from.Serious minds go for serious partners.Those Chanda Florida based Zambian scoundrels were in that as an extension of their background only Chapi should know better.Infact i will be of help to the Secret Service on Chanda Chikwanda. She dropped out of the Business school i was teaching hardly some 3 years ago in some southern state.My data should be useful in sparing our Zambian name.
We’ve heard this word “familiarisation” in Zambia for a long time. They are still doing these tours??? Can we find a better term that translates to results.
Thank you guys. And Zesco, a huge corporation without a website. What a mess!!
Very useful and enlightening comments from contributors. The Zesco/Zambia power deficit is a good example of poor management in general and lack of planning in particular. How can an economy grow if the capacity for fueling growth does not.h
Its disappointing that at this stage in our history we have to accept mediocre services and leadership if you can call it that.
Resources should be mobilised from both public and private sector to increase our electricity generation capacity and although the planned bond issue by Zesco is a step in the right direction, lets hope its not too little too late.
The GRZ is the main shareholder of Zesco and should therefore pump in money. There is also evidence that the GRZ is the main debtor to ZESCO. It must payup and stop playing games with the well-being of energy starved citizens.
Chibiliti is also the main problem with the development lag in Zambia. His policies are grossly poor and lack sound implementation on the ground. Sad that we have a serious deficit of skilled Zambians as most of us with a great education and experience are abroad. We cannot come home when everyday the politicians are defraudinging innocent citizens and getting away with impunity. I cannot stand seeing criminals walking about freely for instance.
I will have to disagree with Brain Dead on two issues.
Firstly the presumption that the educated/skilled zambians are all abroad.
This could not be further from the truth. The zambian civil service, and zambia as a country has a huge number of highly qualified and skilled human resources still in zambia.
From my understanding, Mr Chibiliti is a technocrat and not a politician. Unfortunately the politicians in our country have too much power to influence policy. Granted the technocrats are responsible for implementation, but there is too much interferance by politicians! Hence, among other reasons, the need for revised constitution. But thats a topic for another day.
Why not use some of the USD2billion in foreign reserve instead of it just sitting there, to jump start the energy sector, which also create a spiral in the economic growth. We have to deliberately take risks in pumping money into infrastructure and Capital Projects..
what about the K900 billion which is lying idle in the commercial bank which government departments failed to to utilize?
ZESCO has no foresight, the company for sometime now, has not been putting aside money for future expansion. all money goes towards paying those many directors. a small co. with so many directors!
Chitapankwa, you are thinking like a village *****. The world is now a global village. The two girls live with their mother in Florida like most children whose parents were privilaged to be sponsored by their governments. No one is stopping you from going abroad if you have the means. Some of us left Zambia because of being paid peanuts while uneducated expartriates were paid thousands of dollars.
I guess its not just west africans doing 419
Can the FBI corner those “Natola Fye” girls fast before they do the reputation of Zambia more harm. Who on earth is shielding those brats?
An audit should have been carried out to investigate this problem because i personally believe that zesco had the capacity to build on their current carrying capacity according to growing population and demand for energy in the country.The question is who plundered the money in the zesco tresury?with colosal profits that the utility makes this problem should have been history.so plunderers must be brought to book instead of calling for the resignation of the managing director whom in my view is trying his best from the available resources to resolve this crisis.
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