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Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter
CABINET has approved the Rural Electrification Agency’s (REA) $77 million comprehensive electrification programme, to be undertaken by Indian company, Angelique International Limited.
The approval follows recent awarding of the special project tender to Angelique by the State Procurement Board to electrify 144 rural public institutions and grid electrification of 357 public institutions.
The programme will also result in the construction of two mini hydro power stations (Manyuchi and Muzoro) with a combined capacity of 2,5 megawatts.
Documents at hand show that the urgency of the electrification project was emphasised as a priority area in all four clusters of the Zim-Asset policy that relate to value addition and beneficiation, food security and nutrition, social services and poverty reduction, infrastructure and utilities.
REA chairman Mr Willard Chiwewe confirmed the development.
However, the agency would first clear a $30 million loan which was borrowed to finance previous projects by year end, before embarking on the new project, said Mr Chiwewe.
BancABC is reportedly co-ordinating the loan facility in conjunction with multi-lateral funding institutions from India and China.
The $77 million rural electrification project is one of the key result areas set by the Ministry of Energy and Power Development in the Zim-Asset blueprint. Electrification of the rural institutions is a potential game changer in that it will bring e-learning, e-commerce and internet access to the rural areas.
This will mark the start of potentially one of Africa’s most transformative projects set to keep Zimbabwe at the cutting edge of technological innovations. As such, the REA board was directed to prioritise this project, which has a 10-year funding package.
Government is also considering a 50 percent hike of the rural electrification levy to speed up the process the projects.
REA’s $77 million rural electrification programme comes as Government gathers pace in the implementation of several mega infrastructure deals.
Angelique International, which has done key projects for Zesa’s generation unit, ZETDC, will execute the REA project on engineering, procurement and construction contract basis.
“This affirms Government’s commitment to uplift the lives of the previously disadvantaged Zimbabweans in rural areas,” said a well place source.
He referred further questions to chief executive Engineer Josh Mashamba who confirmed the project saying that Angelique was one of the “many investors that had come to Zimbabwe to seek for opportunities.”
Established in year 1996, Angelique International Limited has grown into a giant EPC company with turnover now nearing $300 million, undertaking turnkey projects in power, water, irrigation and agriculture sectors.
Angelique International is currently undertaking several multimillion dollar projects in Rwanda, Mali, Congo, Yemen, Sierra Leone, India and Ivory Coast.
Online Reporter