Parliament has passed a bill allowing government to access a K60 billion loan from the World Bank for the rehabilitation of Kapichira Power Station.
Yesterday, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe presented a bill for authorisation to borrow $37 millon from the World Bank International Development Association under the crisis response window while $23 millon is a grant.
Gwengwe noted that the loan will finance the rehabilitation of ESCOM and EGENCO infrastructure which was damaged earlier this year during Cyclone Ana.
“The money will be used for the actual rehabilitation of the dam but also building in some resilience because what has been happening year in year out is that every cyclone that comes that dam or that power plant is affected. So they would want to rebuild the plant but also add some features that will give some resilience even for future cyclones that will be expected,” said Gwengwe.
According to Gwengwe, ESCOM will also have a component in the amount about 15 billion just for the transmission lines and everything else.
“So this money let me reemphasize that is coming in under the crisis response, as we speak EGENCO is waiting for a no objection from the PPDA for the procurement of the contractors so that work can start but all the ground work and preparatory work has actually been done and completed and Its now putting and engaging. So probably November and December we should be able to meet that target and have 130 megawatts back in line,” explained Gwengwe.
