The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) will this year execute 105 projects country-wide at a cost of over K407.7 million.
Of the 105 electrification projects, 85 are earmarked to be connected to the national grid while 20 are solar powered.
REA Corporate Affairs Manager, Justin Mukosa says K407,707,142 is from the Central Government through the national budget allocation will be spent to implement the 105 projects.
He disclosed this to ZANIS in an interview in Mongu District.
“REA has an ambitious agenda for 2025 to implement 105 projects using K407,707,142 funding from the national budget allocation,” he said.
Mr Mukosa further disclosed that in REA’s quest to accelerate rural electrification, 31,345 households as well as Medium Small Enterprise (SMEs) will benefit from 44 projects under the National Energy Advancement and Transformation (NEAT) project, funded by the World Bank.
And Mr Mukosa says the Authority is geared to actualize the Presidential Initiative of setting up 1,000 mini-grids through the participation of the private sector.
He explained that project works for 196 sites that have been identified would begin in the second quarter of this year.
On CDF, Mr Mukosa said the Authority had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Councils in 152 constituencies in lighting up rural communities and driving socio- economic development through electrification.
Mr Mukosa said the Authority is yet to sign an MoU in the remaining four constituencies to complete in all the 156 constituencies.
He revealed that 328 sites have been submitted by local authorities to REA.
Mr Mukosa said Copperbelt Province is topping with 67 sites, Southern Province is second with 47 sites while Muchinga has submitted a paltry, six.
He stated that the rest of the provinces that submitted to REA include Luapula (43), Western (38), Central (36), Eastern and North-western (27), Northern 21 and Lusaka 16 sites respectively.
Mr Mukosa added that the sites are subjected for feasibility studies, scope of work, and evaluated.
He however mentioned that, only six projects have so far been completed; three in Copperbelt Province, two in Lusaka and one in North-western province while work continues in the rest of the seven provinces respectively.
Meanwhile, Mr Mukosa has disclosed that Zambia will benefit a total of U$D 5 billion funding from the World Bank’s Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) Program.
He added that the Program to be implemented in various countries across Africa targets to transform 300 million households on the continent through the Sustainable
Development Goal number 7 which seeks to provide universal access to affordable, reliable energy by the year 2030.
