Zambia tells Parliament its power line to Tanzania will be ready by mid-2029

A power line first agreed more than a decade ago now has a finish date. In a ministerial statement to Zambia's Parliament on Thursday, 5 November, the minister responsible for energy, Peter Kapala, said the line linking Zambia to Tanzania "is therefore scheduled to be commissioned by the second quarter of 2029", Reuters reported.

What is being built

The full corridor runs about 2,300 km and is estimated to cost $1.2 billion, Zambia Monitor and Reuters reported. Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya signed an agreement for it in December 2014.

Zambia's own section is 613 km, from Pensulo substation in Serenje District to Nakonde, near the Tanzanian border, through Mpika and Kasama, Zambia Monitor reported. Kapala said the full work in Zambia should take 24 months.

The line would join the Southern African Power Pool with the Eastern Africa Power Pool. Kapala said it "will enable Zambia to trade up to 500 megawatts of power", Zambia Monitor reported.

Who is paying, who is building

Zambia's section is paid for by $292 million in grants: $245 million from the World Bank's IDA, $30 million from the European Union and $17 million from the United Kingdom, according to Zambia Monitor and Ecofin Agency. The state power company, ZESCO, is running the procurement in five packages.

The first two contracts, for about 386 km of lines from Pensulo to Mpika and Mpika to Kasama, went to a Chinese group in October. Reuters calls it Sinotech Consortium; Ecofin spells it Sinotec. Ecofin says the contractor began site surveys on 2 November, and that the contracts for the Kasama to Nakonde stretch should be awarded by March 2027.

News Diggers reported that Kapala said construction would begin in 2027, and that he promised no load shedding in Zambia despite an expected El Niño. We could read only the opening of that report, so treat the load shedding pledge with care.

Why it matters for Nigeria

West Africa is building its own links. The WAPP North Core line, joining Nigeria to Niger, Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso, is more than 75 per cent built, TCN said last week. Read that story. Zambia's case shows how long these lines take: twelve years from agreement to a target date, and grants from three donors to pay for one country's share.

What it means for you

Lines like these let a country with spare power sell it to a neighbour that is short, instead of letting it go to waste. For Nigerians, the regional line that matters is WAPP North Core. When it is done, power will be able to move more freely between Nigeria and its neighbours. Whether that helps your light at home depends on Nigeria first making enough power for itself.