A World Bank official says Zambia will start working on a power line connection to Tanzania

A top World Bank official announced on Friday that Zambia will continue building a power line that will connect it to East Africa, establishing one of the world’s biggest energy marketplaces.

Achim Fock, the World Bank’s country manager for Zambia, stated at a signing ceremony on Friday that work on the Zambia–Tanzania Interconnector Project is expected to commence this month and be completed in 2028.

World Bank, European Union, and British funds are funding the $320 million initiative to connect power supplies in Tanzania and Zambia.

During the same event, Acting Finance Minister Chipoka Mulenga stated that a World Bank grant will pay $245 million of the $298 million cost of the remaining work.

Since it was first proposed over ten years ago, the project has been put on hold for a number of reasons, most notably because of COVID-19 and worries about Zambia’s debt default in late 2020.

Last year, Zambia reached an agreement with bondholders and is being considered as a test case for a debt restructuring under the Common Framework, a G20 platform that aims to unite major creditors like China and the Paris Club, a collection of well-established creditor states.

An integrated market linking the power pools in South and East Africa, according to Fock, would help reduce electricity prices, improve energy security, and open up new avenues for investment and trade in the continent’s power industry.