Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has challenged the power utility company ZESCO to work extra hard and ensure that Zambia becomes the biggest earner in power export in the region.
Speaking shortly before touring the Kariba North bank power station in Siavonga today, Mr. Chikwanda said the Patriotic Front government will not hesitate to provide funding to the ZESCO to in order to address the power deficit in the country.
Mr. Chikwanda observed that Zambia has a comparative advantage to supplying enough power to other regions which cannot be matched with other countries, hence the need for ZESCO to work extremely hard and put Zambia on top class.
The Finance Minister also noted that there is no excuse for the power utility company to continue loadsheding when it has all the equipment to make it necessary to save enough power at their main stations.
And ZESCO Managing Director Cyprian Chitundu affirmed that ZESCO is on course with ensuring that all the works at Kariba north bank are done on time to cut down on loadshading in the country.
Mr. Chitundu pointed out that the project to rehabilitate and upgrade the four generating units is already completed and that it has added 30 mega watts to each unit bringing the total installed capacity to 720 mw.