Standard Chartered has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to deliver a term loan worth $60m to Zambia’s Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO).

The loan will finance capital expenditure tor ZESCO’s Lusaka Transmission and Distribution Rehabilitation Project (LTDRP) as well as provide bridge financing to facilitate new connections to the grid.

This is one of the largest facilities that USAID has delivered within President Obama’s ‘Power Africa’ partnership since the campaign’s launch in 2013. 

This facility is Standard Chartered Zambia’s longest tenor and largest facility provided to a Zambian parastatal entity to date.  

Andrew Okai, CEO of Standard Chartered Zambia, said: “By using our strengths in structuring financial solutions which promote economically enhancing partnerships and improve the lives of individuals, Standard Chartered can demonstrate our promise to be here for good." 

"This is the Bank’s second Power Africa partnership to benefit Zambia, with the first being Standard Chartered’s Private Equity investment in Zambian Energy Corporation,” he said.

ZESCO is a vertically integrated parastatal whose primary business is to generate, transmit, distribute and supply electricity within Zambia as well as exporting to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) countries.

It was established in 1970, and its governance has evolved over time to one that defines an arms-length relationship with Government of Zambia.

ZESCO has installed generation capacity of 2,224 MW which comprises 2,212 MW hydro (99%) and 11.3 MW diesel (1%).

The company owns approximately 39,000km of power transmission and distribution lines and has an installed substation capacity of 5,000 MVA in power transformation infrastructure.

ZESCO has four licenses for its strategic business units, generation, transmission, distribution and supply.

“Part of ZESCO’s strategic plan is to improve the quality of electricity and enhance connections to the national grid,” commented ZESCO’s Managing Director, Victor Mundende.

“USAID and Standard Chartered’s support has already delivered more than 15,000 new power connections.  Furthermore, some of the funds provided will be used for other scheduled power system upgrades, contributing to new and existing connections to homes and businesses across the country.  ZESCO remains committed to meeting its aspirations of electrifying 60% of Zambia by 2030,” he said.