Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has challenged the power utility company ZESCO to work extra hard and ensure that Zambia becomes the biggest earner in power export in the region.
Speaking shortly before touring the Kariba North bank power station in Siavonga today, Mr. Chikwanda said the Patriotic Front government will not hesitate to provide funding to the ZESCO to in order to address the power deficit in the country.
Mr. Chikwanda observed that Zambia has a comparative advantage to supplying enough power to other regions which cannot be matched with other countries, hence the need for ZESCO to work extremely hard and put Zambia on top class.
The Finance Minister also noted that there is no excuse for the power utility company to continue loadsheding when it has all the equipment to make it necessary to save enough power at their main stations.
And ZESCO Managing Director Cyprian Chitundu affirmed that ZESCO is on course with ensuring that all the works at Kariba north bank are done on time to cut down on loadshading in the country.
Mr. Chitundu pointed out that the project to rehabilitate and upgrade the four generating units is already completed and that it has added 30 mega watts to each unit bringing the total installed capacity to 720 mw.
Its better to have blackouts so people don’t watch Sata being booed and embarrassing human race in Ethiopia.
You only had to go political!!…ba zedian mwali kwata uwafya,you have problems.why cant we try reasoning to disagree wi old man chikwanda on professional basis??
“…to cut down on loadshading…” NOT TO CUT LOADSHEDDING.
In short government is powerless over the issue. They think there i9s no excuse but it goes on daily unabated. Why don’t they just resign?
EURO BOUND kali shud work u said you give some zesco, bufi tata?
ZESCO MANAGEMENT NEEDS AN OVERHAUL. THEY ARE LAZY WITH NO INNOVATION. THEY HAVE TAKEN ZAMBIANS FOR GRANTED. I THINK ZAMBIANS SHOULD PROTEST AGAINST THEM, SO THAT THEY GET SERIOUS. ELSE WE SHOULD BRING ANOTHER COMPANY TO DISTRIBUTE ELECTRICITY.
Looks like a lot of us have either forgotten or don’t know this. The root cause of load shedding comes from loans that were signed with conditions that Zambia exports power to Congo, Zimbabwe and South Africa. And unrealistically low rate. We in zambia pay more per unit than in these countries . How can you export anything from your country at a loss when you have a shortage yourself? Time to wake up. Bad contracts like this can be taken to courts of law. No need to just sit and wait.