zambia 24 – zambia community blog

The economic association of Zambia has described the decision by the energy regulation board ERB to approve a 25.6% electricity tariff hike, as a double edged sword.

EAZ executive director, Alexander Chileshe says that the decision might be positive due to the enormous financial needs that the country has in the energy sector.

But Dr. Chileshe says the Zambia electricity supply cooperation ZESCO will have to learn to be more self sufficient and efficient enough to generate, within its own capacity, the resources to address its hurdles.

And Dr. Chileshe says that ZESCO will have to quickly formulate a mechanism of making the commercial consumers of the energy to pay more and not shift the burden on the domestic consumers.

He says that the commercial industry is the largest consumer of ZESCO’s services but the burden of this cost has been moved to the domestic consumer and this is unfair.

He has advised stakeholders in the energy sector to ensure that those who cannot afford to access the commodity are subsidized.

Dr. Chileshe has however cautioned of the cost implication that the tariff hike will have on the nation’s attainment of the new 5.8% GDP focus that Zambia is working towards.

He hopes that the ERB and ZESCO took into consideration the GDP factor before allowing the new tariff.

He was speaking in an interview with Q FM.

QFM