Zambezi River Authority Board Chairperson Emelda Chola says African countries should embrace local mobilisation of resources for project development as a way of creating employment for the locals.
Brigadier General Chola says this approach will also help countries grow their industries unlike dependence on external sources which delay project implementation.
She said this in a speech read on her behalf by Michael Mulasikwanda Principal Power Development Officer at the Ministry of Energy.
This was during a stakeholder’s dialogue on mobilizing domestic resources and optimizing job creation potential for Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme in Lusaka today.
General Chola said Zambia and Zimbabwe have embraced the initiative of local resource mobilization for the development of the Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric project.
She said the two countries have a requirement that 20 percent of the project cost should be local content in the form of materials and infrastructure development.
General Chola urged participants to exploit opportunities presented by the multi-billion-dollar Batoka Hydro-Electric project and that the scheme will directly employ about 3 thousand workers.
And African Union Development Agency -NEPAD Head of Regional Integration Infrastructure and Trade, Symerre Grey Johnson said many activities have been undertaken since the adoption of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa -PIDA-, aimed at a
dressing Africa’s infrastructure deficiency.
Mr. Grey-Johnson cited progress made in developing PIDA power generation Energy Projects such as the Batoka Gorge.
He however noted slow progress in the development of Transmission Power Projects which he said are necessary to evacuate power to energy markets.
ZNBC
Very soon there will be load shedding due not enough rainfall….yet we continue wasting billions in this unreliable energy source.
Show us pictures of that woman, a Brigadier General Chola.
I love powerful women.
Such a woman General can handle KCM with dignity.
The headline is a Joke …. Zambia and Zimbabwe to locally finance the batoka project ????? You are struggling to finance Kazungula bridge
Shameless – the funny part about Kazungula is that its pantry installments of $18m this govt is failing to keep up with …how are they going to fund a $4 billion dollar project. Mutati was busy lieing to us that investors have shown in Batoka Project.
Just read the LT archive links below…see how these reckless fooools can lie without shame everyday.
Yes, it can be done. Both countries can issue bonds denominated in dollars locally and then pump funds to the project with a proviso that all funds generated from sale of electricity go into an account controlled by the lenders until the bonds are repaid. Simple for those who have read project finance.
Nemwine
And which foolish investor would be interested in bonds issued by broke governments with a history of fiscal management delinquency?educate me sir
Has Zimbabwe paid back the money for they owed Zambians which disappointingly Zambia got and signed on behalf Zimbabwe for a similar project just a few years ago?
God bless Zambia.
#1.5, typo.
It’s like being proposed to by a broke 40 year old man!
This is a case of two reckless and broke fellas fantasizing over stuff they can’t afford!! One is so clueless he has no currency of his own whereas the other is on the verge of depleting his life reserves…
“Ukupesha chiboola…” (To shut up an impotent man…)
Ba LT that is a Nigerian dam! Correct your caption please, Batoka has not yet started, and you are showing a photo of a completed project in Nigeria
LT Editor Response – Its better to show you a completed dam as you dont have $4 billion to complete this project even Kazungula a small bridge you can not pay the contractor on time…sit down!!
Nemwine
And which foolish investor would be interested in bonds issued by broke governments with a history of fiscal management delinquency?educate me sir
No one will borrow the broke and corrupt dual any money, both with dull presidents for leaders what a shame
When will we stop joking around with the governance of the country. This project will cost at least $3-4 billion.
Where will the domestic funds come from all of a sudden when the economy is weak and government can’t pay US$18 million for Kazungula or pay workers on time.
What a heap of cow dung. Why not pay down some debt with such resources?
@ Jay Jay, the idea is get a laon and loot using the project as a cover up. They can’t bother about the $18M because they can’t get anything out of it to share. Remember Botswana is involved, and the Swanas can’t allow them to loot. They want big money which they can share properly with fellow corrupt Zimbabweans.
Zambia unlike Zimbabwe has alternative sources of energy. Zimbabwe is stuck that’s they’ve been pushing us over the Batoka Gorge project.
You are even failing to pay local contractors paltry sums of K200,000 & yet you want to build a dam costing $4 billion. Is this cartoon network?