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Fourth
quarter 2007
World Bank team reviews energy sector
A World Bank team jetted
over from Washington DC recently to review Zambia's performance in the
energy sector.
It is understood one of the issues the World Bank team discussed with the
Zambian government during its visit was when the commercialisation
programme for parastatal electricity company ZESCO would be finalised.
Outgoing World Bank country manager Ohene Nyanin was reported as saying
that the World Bank had finalised its work on the commercialisation of
ZESCO but that final discussions with the Zambian government had yet to
take place.
Nyanin said in 2003 government approached the Bank with a road map
outlining the commercialisation programme that the two parties agreed to
be implemented in three phases. The commercialisation exercise started in
2003 and is due to be followed by an interim evaluation this year.
"If we had continued with the privatisation programme we
would have created a bigger monopoly in Southern Africa, if Eskom had come
in to buy ZESCO," Nyanin was reported to have added.
Nyanin said the Zambian government had met many of the benchmarks agreed
with the World Bank such as electricity bill payment and governance issues
concerning the ZESCO board. Other benchmarks included amending the Energy
Regulation Board (ERB) Act and strengthening the ERB board.
The World Bank has been giving the Zambian government technical assistance
on how best to restructure its power sector and, in particularly, make
ZESCO more efficient, transparent and autonomous.
The visit by the World Bank comes at a critical juncture in
Zambia's energy sector crisis. According to a presentation
ZESCO made to potential investors for new power projects at the Zambia
Investment Forum in London earlier this year,
Zambia's existing national capacity will be exhausted this
year, with both national and regional demand surpassing capacity.
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