Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane says the Country has very limited opportunities to import power adding that most Southern African countries do not have the capacity to meet the required demand.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, on why government is not using part of about $400 million increment extended to Zambia by the IMF through the Extended Credit Facility – ECF especially that the country has a deep load shedding schedule, and why the money is not applied to import electricity to save some SMEs which are about to collapse, Dr Musokotwane added that the Country has limited opportunities for the importation of electricity because most Southern African countries do not have the capacity to supply the intended power to lessen the deficit that the Country is experiencing.
Dr Musokotwane said most of the Countries cannot avail the required capacity of power except Mozambique and despite Angola having surplus electricity there is no connecting line to make the supply a possibility.
“The opportunities to inport power are very limited, am sure we have heard that all of Southern Africa only Mozambique has a bit of spare electricity to export to neighboring Countries, we also have some surplus in Angola but there is no connecting line between Angola and Zambia, similarly there is surplus in Tanzania but again there is no connecting line, so importation even if we had money the opportunities are just not there because there is no electricity,” he said.
He added that currently the Government has limited immediate solutions to the impasse but there are expectations of alleviating the challenge in about a year.
Musokotwane encouraged investors to partner with Government in ensuring that the Country limits the electricity shortage through other alternative energy sources like solar and coal.
