Zambia’s president, Edgar Lungu, has reversed Zesco’s decision to increase the price of electricity as poor people greatly suffer from it. In fact, “the state-owned power provider Zesco was ordered to reestablish previous prices until measures to protect the poorest are implemented”, spokesperson to presidency Amos Chanda said.

In December 2015, Zesco increased power price by 70% from 6 dollar cents to 10.35 dollar cents. The additional revenues generated hence would have served to invest about 3.7 billion dollars in energy projects. In the medium term, 1,500 MW were to be added to the national power grid.

Unlike the power sector, the mining sector of Africa’s leading copper producer has been spared the hike. The reason for this is that companies operating in this industry are supplied by Copperbelt Energy Corp.

Gwladys Johnson