HARD TIMES: ZESCO HIKES TARIFFS
Amidst raising cost of living and economic hardship, the Zambian government has announced an increase in electricity tariff, reports Zambian Eye Correspondent.
Zambia Electricity and Supply Company Limited (ZESCO) will increase electricity tariffs by 23 percent staggered in two phases.
Speaking when he featured on Diamond TV program on Tuesday, Green Economy and Environment Minister Collins Nzovu said Zambians must endure the pain of the increased tariffs.
“We need to endure pain of increased tariffs for Zesco to generate revenue ” he said.
Nzovu says citizens will have to go through the pain of increased electricity tariffs in order to assist Zesco in meeting the growing energy demand in the country.
Currently, the country is facing high cost of living, power outages due to El ñano among other hardships.
In opposition, President Hakainde Hichilema then opposition leader of the UPND party promised to end load shedding and make everything available even to the ordinary citizen.
However, despite the debt restructuring, it seems to be hard for the President to fulfill some of his campaign promises due to climate change.
His failure to fulfill some of the campaign promises makes him look like a liar as Mambilima Constituency Member of Parliament Jean Chisenga said it in Parliament that the President lies too much.
However, opposition leaders and citizens are challenging President Hichilema to use his calculator to bring things down as promised.
Will the President and the UPND government manage to stabilize the economy before the next General Elections.?
The same diatribe is going on in Nigeria. Infrastructure requires on to invest to maintain it. RSA escom has longer load shedding hours than zambia and its has been going on for years. Zambia its seasonal. Why do want to wait until we get to the Nigerian or South African state of affairs before we deal with the problem?
The tariffs currently dont cover the cost of generating power let alone maintain it.
Bane not being realistic is “kicking the can down the road” abd hoping the problem will gi away.
Bally will fix it!
Vote wisely in 2026.
Indigo Tryol fuseki p*nyo pako you PF criminal
You can’t build a business on price increases. Zesco is a monopoly and therfore takes its customers for granted. One day Zesco will wake up only to find that their customers have switched them off.
Zesco has been singing about improving customer service delivery through increased tariffs for some time and across a number of administrations. Inspite of the hefty tariff increases, there has been no corresponding improvement in customer service delivery. They have even lamentably failed to stick to their load shedding schedule!
Iam convinced that no amount of tariff increase will help Zesco operate efficiently and deliver quality service to their customers. The tariff increases only help Zesco entrenched their inefficiency.