Zesa is working on a debt recovery strategy to pin consumers, including bigwigs who owe the power utility $1 billion in unpaid bills, Energy and Power Development Minister Dr Samuel Undenge said yesterday.

Some Government Ministers and senior civil servants are not paying their electricity bills, with some owing tens of thousands of dollars at their homes and farms. If they don’t pay for the services, Zesa will come to a stage where it will not be able to deliver that service.

The move would have seen consumers being forced to pay high monthly instalments towards servicing their debts before accessing electricity.

Though Zesa’s proposed tariffs have remained a secret, sources said the utility wanted the price pegged at 14 cents per kilowatt per hour up from 9,86c/Kwh.

The average electricity cost in the Southern African region is 14c/kWh.

MAR 13, 2015 Forbes 

A $400 million cement plant in Zambia owned by Dangote Group will be commissioned and commence operations by the end of March, according to a report by the Lusaka Times.

Speaking to a group of Journalists on Thursday at departure at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and owner of the Dangote Group, said that the commissioning of the new cement plantwhich is located in Masaiti district in the Copperbelt, had been delayed as a result of flooding and a delay in getting the requisite permits from the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).

Once operational, the Dangote Cement Plant will have a production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes annually and will create at least 1,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, Dangote is constructing another Cement Plant in Chilanga, a small town 20 km south of Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka. The cement plant in Chilanga will cost an estimated $420 million.

“We have made good progress on the plant in Lusaka, we have already got permission to get into the land and start mining, so hopefully the same contractor might move there and build an identical plant with the one in Masaiti,” Dangote said.

Aliko Dangote has been Africa’s richest man for the past 5 years. His current fortune is estimated at $15.9 billion derived from investments in cement, sugar and flour.

Global power and automation technologies company ABB (Pvt) Ltd says Zimbabwe’s limitations in foreign direct investment (FDI) in solar power generation were preventing the company from taking solar business on a commercial level.

In the 2016 National Budget, government allocated $28,3 million towards grid extension, solar and biogas projects as it looks for alternatives in power generation. Part of the drive includes the development of 300MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy through State-owned power generation unit, Zimbabwe Power Company.

LUSAKA: Zambia expects to clinch $1 billion in Chinese investment and loans at this week’s China-Africa summit in Johannesburg, a presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Amos Chanda said Zambia was expected to conclude deals with China in infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, power generation as well as agriculture.

Zambia and China were also likely to sign an agreement for the construction of two modern hospitals, Chanda said.

” These deals should add up to over $1 billion,” he told Reuters.

Chinese firms have invested heavily in mining and other sectors in the southern African nation over the last 10 years with investment exceeding $3 billion in 2014, according to latest Chinese embassy estimates.

An electricity shortage and weaker copper prices have put pressure on Zambia’s mining industry, threatening output, jobs and economic growth in Africa’s No. 2 copper producer.

China plans to invest a further $900 million over the next five years in an economic zone, where firms would be exempted from some taxes such as customs duties.

The 6 Jan 2016, Zimbabwe has signed a trade agreement with Qingdao, in order to promote the investment exchanges, increase trades and develop economic cooperations. This will also provide a platform for the industrial and commercial circles of both countries.

The deputy mayor of Qingdao, Wangwei, said that the trade between Zimbabwe and Qingdao in 2014 reached 19.43 million dollars.

In 2014, Henshunzhongshen Group of Qingdao invested two gold mines in Zimbabwe, and Qingdao Ruichang established two companies and invested two factories in Zimbabwe.

Some Chinese official said that the Baverage Group Co., LTD of Qingdao, SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO) and Qingjian Construction Group are investigating the market of Zimbabwe.