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The power utility has a headache on how it would secure financing for the project as the US$17,5 million it got as initial funding from a financial institution is fast getting exhausted.
In an interview yesterday, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution managing director, Engineer Julian Chinembiri, said initially they had budgeted US$65 million but the power utility was now looking at US$77 million to complete the project.
“We had covered 100 000 customers just before the Easter holiday, but our contractors have been working throughout the holiday meaning that the figure could have changed now,” said Eng Chinembiri.
He said the US$17,5 million that they had secured from a financial institution would soon be exhausted. “The plan is that we should conclude new financial mechanism before this money is exhausted. There are a number of financial institutions that we have talked to and we might be concluding the deal soon. We are also looking at how the project can finance itself, because as you can see the project has the potential of financing itself,” he said.
The ZETDC boss said a comprehensive assessment would be made in July on how the company had faired and whether they were still within their target.
“In July we will be making an assessment but all our contractors are geared to meet the target. We also want to cover a lot of ground with the US$17,5 million.
“We have a number of funders who have expressed interest, so we expect that by the time this money is exhausted we would have concluded some deals. There are a lot of gaps but we need to remain focused so that we meet our target,” he said.
The four contracted companies are Solahart, ZTE, Finmark and Nyamazela of South Africa.
Zesa introduced prepaid meters as part of efforts to enhance revenue collection as it emerged that the power utility was owed hundreds of millions of United States dollars by customers.
Online Reporter