Martin Muleya
MUTARE-As the country is grappling energy crisis due to lack of capital investments the Government is ready to partner the private sector to ensure that there is enough and reliable power for the nation.
The Government through the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion has admitted that it is broke and is struggling to provide basic services to citizens hence the need for public private partnerships.
The energy crisis is deteriorating as households and businesses are facing prolonged outages.
In a bid to address the crisis, the Government has turned to private investors who are keen on exploring alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
In an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a tour at Nyangani Renewable Energy (Pvt) (Ltd) Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube highlighted that one of the key enablers of vision 2030 is power.
“We need power that is available at scale, affordable and whose source is diversified. What we have today is an addition to the power mix that is power produced by the private sector. Nyangani Renewable Energy is produced by an independent private investor and we welcome this development.
“As Government we have limited resources, we cannot do everything. This development is welcome, it is also raising the gross domestic product of the province,” said Ncube.
The Finance Minister assured that independent power producers were going to be supported by Government and emphasized that to show its seriousness a Government Implementation Agreement which will see that there is a right level of tariff, Government guarantee on the power producer as well as making sure that foreign currency is available to the investors for them to feel comfortable that they will get their returns as intended.
Turning on the investment climate in the country, Ncube reiterated that Zimbabwe was still open for business and assured that Government was keeping on improving the investment climate every day.
“With power producers investors we have dealt with the issue of security in terms of getting paid in the right currency. We have managed to improve a good number of what is required to improve the investment climate but we need to do more. Our next national budget will reflect on how we can establish an aestro account mechanism that can support the independent power producers,” added Ncube.
Nyangani Rnewable Energy (NRE) was established in 2014 in the scenic Honde valley. The company is a leading player in the renewable energy sector focusing on sustainable energy solutions and committed to addressing Zimbabwe’s energy challenges.
NRE managing director Ian McKersie said the company generates 15 Megawatts of electricity yet the whole Honde valley area consumes 3.75MW of electricity. The excess is then fed into the national grid.
“Currently we are producing 15 Megawatts and Honde Valley needs about 3.75 Megawatts so he excess goes to the national grid. We cannot exist as an IPP with no strong ZETDC. The move that Government has put in place for ZETDC to have a strong tariff send signal to investors and the only wrinkle we have is foreign currency issue and the guarantee of payments which we are working on. We need some foreign currency comfort for investors to get attracted in the country,” said McKersie.
He highlighted that they had other five projects producing a total of 27 Megawatts adding that while investors were ready to put in their money they are currently uncomfortable with the exchange rate system at present moment.
