JOHANNESBURG – A Zesa subsidiary has signed a US$110 million syndicated loan with continental trade finance bank Afreximbank, the bank said on Friday.
“The funds will help Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) to improve revenue collection through smart meters and pre-paid meters and thus pay off regional creditors’ accounts,” Afreximbank said in a statement.
Many electricity users in Zimbabwe are on a post-pay system and rack up large debts, which is bad for ZETDC’s books and hurts its ability to supply power.
Afreximbank said it had signed financing deals worth another US$78 million with three other Zimbabwean companies – the Central African Building Society, CBZ Bank and ZB Bank – at a trade fair in the South African port city of Durban.
Zesa says it is owed $15 billion in unpaid bills by businesses, government departments and ordinary consumers.
Energy and Power Development acting minister Jenfan Muswere told Parliament on Wednesday that Zesa will switch off nearly 29 000 defaulting customers in the coming days in an effort to recover its money.
“Various credit control measures are being utilised by the utility in debt collection, which has seen collections increasing,” Muswere said.
“The defaulting clients are being submitted for blacklisting if all avenues (to recover the debts) fail.
“So far 28 955 customers have been submitted for blacklisting.
“The clients on post-paid and load limit are gradually being enrolled onto the pre-payment metering platform where debt is managed through a minimum deduction per month.”
He said Zesa was planning to put 100 000 clients on the pre-payment platform to manage the debt.
Zesa has been struggling to pay-off debts owes Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa millions of dollars for power imports.
Zimbabwe’s power utility has been struggling to secure electricity imports to cover its power generation deficit due to the debt, forcing it to implement rolling power cuts. – Reuters/VicFallsLive