Zambia May Double Electricity Prices as Drought Curbs Supply

Electrical power lines sit on a pylon leading from the Trypilska thermal power station near Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. Trypilska needs millions of dollars to replace the original turbines, boilers and pipes and is one of hundreds of state-held properties whose sale could generate $1 billion this year alone and help finance the modernization of Ukraine's economy. , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

Taonga Clifford Mitimingi, Bloomberg News

Sep 17, 2019

Share

(Bloomberg) -- Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, may increase power tariffs by 100% as the government seeks more costly imports to make up for a shortfall from its drought-hit hydropower dams, the energy minister said.

“I think it will be maybe double the amount, because we are paying half the amount that we are supposed to pay for electricity in Zambia,” Matthew Nkhuwa told reporters in Lusaka, the capital, when asked by how much the government may increase prices.

--With assistance from Matthew Hill.

To contact the reporter on this story: Taonga Clifford Mitimingi in Lusaka at tmitimingi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alastair Reed at areed12@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.