ZESCO Limited Managing Director Victor Mapani has confirmed that the plan to dismantle the backlog of electricity connections applications is on course.
Mr. Mapani said as of 31st December 2021, there were 67,000 pending applications which had built up over the last few years because ZESCO did not have resources to finance the connections.
He said with the funds raised so far, ZESCO has managed to make 40,000 connections and is remaining with 27,000 connections, which it expects to make between now and 31st December 2022.
“This means at 60% of the work has been done in less than half the timeframe. This is partly due to most connections done being standard connections that need less or no construction works,” Mr. Mapani said.
Mr. Mapani also revealed that ZESCO requires over US$108 million to complete the exercise.
Meanwhile, ZESCO has revealed that it has made significant gains to reduce the debt owed to Independent Power Producers following successful negotiations with Maamba Collieries Ltd and Itezhi-Tezhi Power Corporation.
Mr. Mapani said following the successful negotiations with Maamba Collieries, ZESCO’s power supply invoice has been reduced to US$16.5 million from US$25 million per month.
