Zambia: No ZESCO Staff Enjoys Free Electricity…Says Eng Victor Mapani

Zambia’s Electricity Supply Corporation’s Managing Director, Eng Victor B. Mapani, has clarified the wrong impression that was created in the minds of the Zambian electricity-consuming public that workers of the organisation do not pay for the power they use.

He corrected the wrong perception when he was featured in an insightful Q&A session during the public hearing on ZESCO’s resubmission on tariff adjustment to the ERB in Zambia.

“On staff specifically, no ZESCO staff gets free power. Every ZESCO staff pays for the power the same tariff as anyone in the country,”he clarified.

Touching on how the company intends to deal with its indebtedness, which totalled US$1.8 billion as of December 31, 2021, he explained that currently, the debt owned by Independent Power Producers has been reduced to less than Zambian Kwacha 430 million.

“As I stand here now, the debt towards Independent Power Producers is less than 430 million Kwacha,” he stated.

According to ZESCO’s M.D., as people who produce power and sell to them, they currently pay them on a monthly basis in full, and this justifies prudence in their financial dealings as an organisation.

Eng Mapani, who is an energy expert, assured stakeholders that there is an effort by the management to get the company to be financially sustainable and assured the country that they are determined to judiciously use any resource they get into both power supply, its development and evacuation processes.

“So accounting for the incomes currently, all the funds that we have gotten as requested for power are fully transparently used for import, and what will go for power to are also used for that purpose,” he assured them.

ZESCO’s M.D. also stressed that they are committed to being transparent in their operations so that efficiency, transparency and proper accountability become the hallmarks of the organisation.

ZESCO is a state-owned power company in Zambia, and it is the majority electricity provider in Zambia, supplying about 90 per cent of the power needs of Zambia.

The two other companies that augment electricity in the country are the Copper Belt Energy Corporation and Lusemfwa Electricity Company.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com