Zambia: Zesco seeks pension fund cash to complete Kafue Gorge Lower

Liquidity-constrained Zesco is seeking to borrow from the country’s biggest pension fund to complete the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower (KGL) hydro project. Zesco chairman Mbita Chitala told Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation the utility was in talks with pension funds to finance the transmission line element of the scheme. He did not name the fund in the 21 April interview, but industry sources confirmed the utility was talking to the National Pension Scheme Authority, the country’s biggest pension fund, which the government regularly dips into to pay civil servants’ salaries.