United Capital Fertilizer UCF has disclosed plans to construct an independent power substation that will help to build a self-sufficient projected production of fertilizers in the next two years.
UCF plans to increase production from the current 200 000 metric tons to over 300 000 metric tones in 2024 which translates to 600 000 for both Urea and D compound a situation which is anticipated to settle the local and regional demand market.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – UCF Chairman Chance Kabaghe said the project is likely to cost $600 million as they will also need to put in place a 75Mega watts power plant so that they are self-sufficient in terms of electricity.
He said with the persisting electricity problems in the Country, the company may not afford to run a fertilizer plant which has problems hence the need for their own independent power substation.
Kabaghe explained that the power plant project alone is projected to cost about $75 million dollars as roughly it costs about $1 million per megawatt.
“Currently UCF consumes power from ZESCO with some transformers, but once we start producing at the projected full capacity in the next two years we will not need ZESCO as we will have our own station because we are anticipating all those problems to come in future and we need to be in house so that we can stay.” Said Kabaghe.
“Because once we start exporting fertilizer and people buy forward, we cannot afford to disappoint them so we need to have all the necessary components in place in particular the heating facility because the requirement for electricity is very high.” He said.
Kabaghe said realization of the 600 000 fertilizer production, entails that there will be no need for the country to import fertilizer as the country will be safe sufficient as the fertilizer will be locally produced while the product will be easily accessed with low prices.
