USAID and Standard Chartered Bank have developed’ a partnership to lend $60 million to Zambia’s state-owned power utility Zesco which produces and provides nearly 80% of Zambia’s power. The loan is one of the largest facilities ever provided to a state-owned company in Zambia.

The loan will be used to finance capital expenditures associated with the rehabilitation of Zesco’s transmission and power distribution network. It will also help the firm provide an interim funding to facilitate new connections to this network.

According to Zesco’s marketing director, the loan provided by the two banks has already allowed for the development of 15,000 new power connections via Zesco’s 39,000 km transmission and distribution lines.

The operation takes a load off Zambia’s shoulders as the economy’s key sectors, the mining industry most of all, are crippled by daily power outages. Zambia as it aims to diversify its economy relies on the mining sector, but this sector is slowing due to power supply issues and the fall in price of copper. Zambia is Africa’s second largest copper producer and 8^th worldwide.

Louis-Nino Kansoun