ELECTRICITY is an essential commodity that contributes to the growth of the national economy by propelling productivity in sectors such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and mining.
Without electricity, industry collapses meaning that the country will not have the capacity to produce any form of goods and services.
As such, demand for the commodity has grown extensively to the extent that in some far flung parts of Zambia, electricity is a luxury.
Institutions such as the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) have been mandated to change the status quo and ensure Zambia’s 10 provinces are connected with electricity to spur productivity.
In a recent update on its expansion projects, REA disclosed that it had completed 29 grid extension projects at a total of K203 million and handed them over to Zesco.
These projects have been undertaken in all the 10 provinces of the country with the purpose of bridging the gap between rural and urban communities in as far as access to electricity is concerned.
This is a good development that will benefit not only the households but industry in general resulting in increased material production and employment opportunities.
The Government through the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) has embarked on the creation of value chain clusters predominantly in rural areas to add value to the local natural endowment.
This is a project under the job creation and industrialisation strategy paper which was coined to aid the creation of employment at all levels for the local people.
Through an industrial cluster, for instance, farmers in Mwinilunga district will be empowered through a government grant to establish processing plants to add value to the local pineapple endowment.
Previously such projects failed due to inadequate electricity and this is what among other things led to lower productivity, especially in-terms of micro processing.
The success of the projects announced by REA will also contribute to attracting investors for various industries which could have previously been operational but now defunct.
Some of these companies were at one point the mainstay of employment opportunities in Zambia and once again stand an opportunity of revival as electricity is available.
Stakeholders such as the Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) have been calling for the decentralisation of milling plants to ease pressure on the cost of mealie-meal.
Such viable business mechanisms could not have been possible previously due to limited access to electricity by small and medium enterprises involved in this exercise at grassroots level.
Any project of economic viability requires electricity which to be produced also requires massive capital injection.
This calls for the encouragement of Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) to participate in the industry and set up power plants in both urban and rural areas.
Companies like Ndola Energy should look at extending their presence to the far flung areas.
This will support efforts by REA to make certain that electricity does not remain a luxury for the local people in far flung areas to afford.
The Government must ensure that REA is continually funded to go beyond the current projects that have been completed under the rural electrification programme.
Funding should also be extended to Zesco that projects of increasing power generation go beyond the current rate for the country to mitigate electricity deficits.
Zesco on the other hand should ensure that as its power generation capacity increases, consumers access the commodity at an affordable rate.
The current electricity tariffs are too high to afford for the ordinary consumer who is often of the view that such pricing does not conform to the quality of services offered by the power utility.
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