By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba;
Minister of Infrastructure, Housing, and Urban Development, Charles Lubasi Milupi and Minister of Finance and National Planning, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane have prided themselves that infrastructure development would be done using a modern model that would spare the Treasury commitment of huge resources to long-term infrastructure.
They duo commissioned Public Private Partnership (PPP), a long time provision that has been established.
To enhance private sector participation in infrastructure and service delivery, the Public-Private Partnership Act No. 18 of 2023 was passed to repeal the primary legislation governing PPPs, the 2009 Act.
But instead of the private sector bringing resources to the PPP’s as envisioned, we saw the projects being financed by the public pension houses and public road toll.
Take for example, the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriage Way, was primarily financed through the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) and the Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board (WCFCB).
The Concessionaire, Macro Ocean Investment Consortium (MOIC-LN), which includes Chinese firms like AVIC International, Zhenjiang Communications, and China Railway Seventh Group obtained a 25-year concession to do the 327-kilometer projectproject valued at approximately US$649.97 million using public pension houses and public toll.
Similarly, the Ndola–Sakania–Mufulira Road and Border, a project valued at $76.1 million is a 22-year concession agreement with Jaswin Ports Limited.
The Chingola–Chililabombwe–Kasumbalesa Road a major Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project designed to modernize a critical 35-kilometer economic corridor connecting the Copperbelt to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border, has been financed by Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board and public toll.
The project is managed by Turbo Kachin Consortium Limited (also referred to as Turbo Ka-chin Investment).
Similarly the height of the power shortage, President Hichilema convened a meeting to support the Maamba Power Second Phase Project.
Following an urgent meeting at State House, the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) announced that it would provide $200million in debt financing for the Phase II expansion of the Maamba Collieries coal power plant.
This project, aimed at increasing capacity by 300MW to ease load shedding, was part of a broader $400 million investment.
Of concern is the quality of the service delivered.
Another PPP project was the 100 MW Chisamba Solar PV project financed through a $100 million deal comprising 70% debt from Stanbic Bank Zambia ($71.5 million) and 30% government equity.
It was developed by a ZESCO subsidiary, Kariba North Bank Extension Power Corporation (KNBEPC) but the Offtaker is a middleman, GreenCo Power Services granted a power purchase agreement for 13 years.
The key feature of the project is dedicated supply of power to the mining giant,First Quantum Minerals.
In this case, ZESCO has borrowed money using its assets, and committed to sell the product to GreenCo for 13 years, who will sell to FQM for the same duration!
Milupi’s and Situmbeko’s PPPs are shoddy and reek corruption.
The new roads are showing rapid deterioration, and great but uncommon were and tear, revealing deep-seated concerns that the roads do not meet the 25-year quality.
The use of public pension funds (if these are profitable ventures, why have the private pension houses and private banks stayed away?) raises concerns as public funds are being used as conduits to fund the private sector to do public projects while all the huge profits and benefits go to the private sector!
In todays terms it’s looting
Sub standard work everywhere is now the norm
Even the dual carriage way whilst the standard may be acceptable the design may well bring many a nightmare in the future
No it’s not looting but laziness of Zambians to do their jobs. You don’t expect the Chinese to do your roads and then inspect the quality themselves meanwhile our own people -civil servants charged with that responsibility are just drinking tea in their offices. There is need for mindset change, thses same civil servants will be the ones crying out loud when their salaries are delayed.
“that would spare the Treasury commitment of huge resources to long-term infrastructure”
Just that, should raise eyebrows. Unless you are manufacturing money how would the treasury not foot your infrastructure bill?
If Zambia’s 330km dual carriageway is costing only $650m then why is Kenya’s planned dual carraigeway Nairobi to Mombasa coasting US $3.4b ??
That means Zambia is doing it the cheap but costly way of long term headaches and costly future upgrades/corrections.
True. The Nairobi-Mombasa expressway of nearly the same distance as ours will cost $3.6 billion. The Chinese are constructing it.
Let’s see how the two roads gobble up maintenance money in the coming 20 years. Will our governments learn anything?
Where are all the UPND talking heads that made noise about how this project was overpriced by PF? Well, here is your discounted project. And it won’t even be finished by election time.
This deal is far worse than the PF one. Here, the so-called PPP is financed by zambian pensioners funds and the tolls are collected by Chinese. Lol
@China when Chiluba became president the civil service was identified as being overly bloated. Pruning became the buzzword in govt circles.
This Pruning silently disappeared and when UPND took over, the civil service strangely became the tool for tackling unemployment. This only makes it more inefficient as its staff are untrained