Mines, Energy and Water Development Deputy Minister Richard Musukwa says government has embarked on an ambitious electrification programme of all rural areas in the country.
Mr. Musukwa said access to electricity will increase economic activities and help fight poverty in rural areas.
The Deputy Minister said this during the commissioning of the Laurent Chita Grid Extension which involves the electrification of four schools, two health centres and Chief Kabila’s palace at a cost of K6.5 million.
He said government’s vision is too provide developmental infrastructure such as electricity, roads, hospitals and schools among others.
Mr. Musukwa urged people to make use of the electricity that has been brought closer to them to improve their levels of income through setting up of small scale enterprises.
And Rural Electrification Authority (REA) Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Musonda said the authority remained committed to achieving the targets set in its Master Plan of increasing rural electricity access rates from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 51 percent by 2030.
Mr. Musonda said the Laurent Chita project is expected to benefit 1,815 pupils, public service workers and also a catchment population of 11,340 in the area.
And Luwingu District Education Board Secretary Charity Lungu said the connection of the schools to the national grid will help attract more teachers to serve in rural areas.
Ms Lungu appealed to government through REA to extend the programme to other schools in the district as it will contribute to improved service delivery.
This electrification program has been going on for years and years even under Chiluba’s MMD in the 90s I heard about this selfsame program…it has no project deadline whatsoever; its just another way for greedy politicians to reward themselves with ZESCO supply contracts.
Our friends in Kenya, RSA, Nigeria and Ghana are light years ahead of us and talking about investing in 4G Networks upgrades, constructing technology centres and solar power plants….we are still stuck in colonial technologies and mindsets. If Gov’t invested in mini solar power plants to supply these cut off villages and then supplemented the excess to the national grid we wouldn’t be talking about this.
The headline is misleading when in actuality it’s all about Luwingu.
The self praise from politicians is meaningless and Tosh. Misplaced good
Solar energy is the way forward now
I am in agreement with Star that solar is the way to go in rural areas. The government can hardly satisfy the demand of the urban areas whatmore the rural areas? This is just cheap politics to gain votes from the illiterate villiagers.
We are still talking about the national grid when with all the sunshine we have we should be installing solar panels for all rural schools
Imagine if GRZ installed solar panels on the roofs of those boarding domes and classrooms how much they would feed back into the grid and how much those schools would save in energy charges which is one of their biggest bills.
And how much are you borrowing?