MINISTER of Energy and Water Development Dora Siliya has called on financial institutions to play an active role in financing power generation projects to cushion the energy crisis that has hit the country.
Ms Siliya said in Kitwe yesterday that financial institutions are critical to the development of the energy sector.
She said the institutions should provide funding to local and foreign investors to undertake power generation projects.
Ms Siliya said the energy crisis Zambia is facing requires the full participation of the private sector, for the country to meet the current 700 megawatt deficit and reduce the cost of doing business.
She said the country’s power deficit is expected to increase to 1,000 megawatts by the end of this year because of poor rainfall, which has caused a drastic drop of water levels.
Ms Siliya was speaking at Kitwe’s Moba Hotel at a power crisis and energy demand side management meeting.
“The energy crisis is real. This is not a time for a blame game. It is a national emergency. Investment in backbone infrastructure is critical to address this crisis. We need to invest in renewable energy, especially solar. We have been extremely dependent on hydro power.
“We are looking for other sources to generate electricity. Financial institutions will have to play an active role in financing power generations projects,” Ms Siliya said.
She said power problems have affected the mines and triggered an increase in the prices of essential commodities and that she is currently exploring ways of speeding up power purchasing and implementation agreements.
Ms Siliya urged Zesco management to rehabilitate and expand the national grid network to enable it to accommodate all the power that will be generated from the thermal, solar and hydro-power projects being undertaken countrywide.
She said about 10 hydro-power sites have been identified in Luapula and Northern provinces for long-term investments in electricity generation and that they need urgent foreign and local investments.
Zambia is currently importing 148 megawatts of power from Mozambique.
What a wise woman, she manage to get Miles Sampa resign
For contracts, she can do anything. She will quickly spend the rest of the Eurobond on energy projects to make money for alibi and henule.
This PF is really the most clueless Government ever seen!
“Ms Siliya said in Kitwe yesterday that financial institutions are critical to the development of the energy sector”….
They are. But PF has KILLED the financial market with its borrowing and spending, and now interest rates are going through the roof!
There is no confidence in this Government or Zambias economy or political stability, so which Financial Institutions does she think are so stup!d as to invest their clients money here?
Just use the ROADS and RAILWAYS you corruptly wasted the Eurobond on to now generate electricity!
I cn sadly say, th govnt isn’t doin anything tangible 2 solv th power crisis apart from praying tht it start rainin soon and it rains heavily. I say so bcz we’ve hd this power crisis since June if am not mistekn, 6 month down th line nothng hs bin achived yet 2 reduce th power deficit apart from importation of abt 170MW frm Mozambique. I rmember on ‘Let The People Talk’ honourable Yaluma promised th nation th power crisis wud not get as far as december n th hours of load-sheddin wer goin 2 b reduced by September/October but th opposite is wat we av witnessed.
@Lulu, by now you should know better than to trust PF promises!
All this “90 day” bull.shit is, as they have admitted in public, just an “election gimmick” that is immediately thrown out in the dustbin as soon as they are elected.
As Daniel Munkombwe plainly said, they are in Government “to EAT”, not to do anything about the economy, or the loadshedding or anything else that causes hardships for ordinary Zambians.
Ms Siliya is reported to have said at the same meeting that had the Batoka Gorge project been implemented the same water would have generated electricity twice at Batoka and Kariba. However, misunderstandings over the ownership of the Kariba hydroelectric power plant, which the two countries share, prompted the Zambian government to develop cold feet over Batoka in 1994. “Such a background does not give us a firm foundation to enter into yet another costly project like the Batoka one,” former Zambian energy minister, Edith Nawakwi, told The Financial Gazette in 1994. Both countries decided to pursue “go-it-alone” policies with Zambia initiating a second stage dam on the lower Kafue and Itezhitezhi power station and Zimbabwe developing large-scale, Hwange coal-fired power station. What is…
A recent study has found that not implementing the Batoka Gorge project has cost over 50 BILLION DOLLARS in lost production and efficiency!
The TOTAL COST of building it is only 3 Billion Dollars! What an example of penny wise pound fool.ish politicians!
The REAL IRONY of this is that the Zambian Government did not trust Mugabes Zimbabwe to pay up their share of the cost of construction as their economy was on the rocks. Zim is owing over 8 Billion dollars that they are struggling to repay. But now with the irresponsible spending of this PF Government Zambia has OVERTAKEN Zimbabwes debt!
It took KK and his UNIP 27 Years to bankrupt Zambia the first time, and it took Mugabe 30 years to bankrupt Zimbabwe and to accumulate that debt. Sata and this Lungu clown of his have managed…