TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube has said the US$4bn Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric project, which is expected to improve the electricity situation in the country, is progressing well.
The 2 400MW project is co-owned by Zimbabwe and Zambia, the two countries struggling with severe electricity shortages. Upgrade of feasibility studies is almost complete.
Construction works of the project, which was mooted in 1992, are expected to begin next year.
Already GE and Power China have been engaged to undertake the project, which would be on a build-operate-transfer financing model and would not put any fiscal strain on the governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia. As a result, no sovereign guarantees would be needed.
Ncube, who spoke at a webinar on Zimbabwe’s Economic Recovery Path-Reforms, last week said: “The Batoka Gorge is progressing well as we all know the work is a PPP a concessional arrangement a 25-year concession led by Power China and GE as well as local project promoters and they are progressing with the project it is coming along.”
Ncube is part of the steering council of ministers comprising Ministries of Finance and Energy from Zimbabwe and Zambia, set up to spearhead the project.
Zimbabwe and Zambia are implementing the hydro-power project in the gorges along Zambezi River where two 1 200MW power plants on either side of the river, a sub-station, transmission as well as a new settlement and road infrastructure will be built.
Zambezi River Authority jointly owned by the two governments is the implementing agent and in 2019 chose GE and Power Corporation of China to build the power plant, about 50km downstream from Victoria Falls City.
Kurai Matsheza, the president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries urged Zimbabwe and Zambia to accelerate efforts at the Batoka Gorge.
“We would want them to focus on making that Batoka gorge a reality,” Matsheza said.
