Jonathan Wood

Opening the third Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit in Livingstone, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development, Yeukai Simbanegavi, set a target to end power imports by the end of 2027, resting on 1,365MW of private generation in the pipeline and licensing reforms that have cut the application fee for a generation licence to US$20.

Modaso Energy, part of MISA Group, and Zimbabwean developer Tatanga Energy announced at the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit that they will develop the Guruve-Mazowe Hybrid Renewable Energy project in Mashonaland Central, pairing 128MW of wind with solar and battery storage behind one 100MW grid connection, with ZESA set as its main buyer.

Mzi Chizura, Business Improvement Manager at Caledonia Holdings Zimbabwe, tells ENN’s Let’s Talk Energy podcast why reliable electricity matters more to a mine than its price, and how Caledonia is building a steadier supply for Blanket Mine around solar generation and a new connection to the national grid.

ENN’s Women’s Voices series puts the same three questions to women making the decisions in Nigerian energy and mining. Janet Adeyemi, National President of Women in Mining Nigeria, answers from the experience of more than 3,000 women in the sector, telling ENN why investors should see them as partners across Nigeria’s minerals value chain.

Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation formally established the Africa Energy Bank at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on 31 October, appointing Helmy Ghazi as its first president and constituting a board for a lender that will finance the energy value chain from exploration to distribution.

Engr. Chijioke Okwuokenye, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc, on the waste-to-power plant AEDC has begun discussing with the Federal Capital Development Authority and its plan to close its metering gap by the first quarter of 2028, as demand around Abuja grows faster than the network built to carry it.

Bwalya Chilufya-Musonda, Partner at Bowmans Zambia, on why private investors are turning to Zambia’s power sector, as the National Energy Compact sets out $11.9bn of generation and transmission investment to 2030, with $9.5bn expected from the private sector and installed capacity planned to more than double to 10,000MW.

Owen Silavwe, Managing Director of Copperbelt Energy Corporation, on financing Zambia’s largest solar plant through CEC’s own green bond and on the cross-border trade it sees with the DRC, as the company hosts investors in Livingstone as Country Host of the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit.