By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA –
THE Rural Electrification Authority (REA) has connected electricity to more than nine per cent of rural households countrywide, chief executive officer (CEO) Geoffrey Musonda has said.
Mr Musonda said of the 9 per cent, 4.5 per cent had been connected to the national grid with the rest using solar energy.
He said this on Tuesday when he inspected the K6 million Kang’wena REA project in the peri-urban areas of Chingola along the Chingola-Solwezi Road.
“As you know REA was formed in 2003 by Government with the objective to construct rural electrification infrastructure, we have to date managed to connect 4.5 per cent of rural households to national grid and a further 4.5 per cent to solar,” he said.
He said the inspection of the Kang’wena project was meant to check on how works had progressed since REA took over implementation of the project last year.
“This project was conceived in 2012 and we had a contractor who did some work but REA decided to terminate the contract after which we mobilised our own engineers, recruited staff and took over implementation of the project ourselves,” Mr Musonda said.
Mr Musonda said a total of 192 service connections to cover 10 rural schools, health centres and various communities were expected to be done at the completion of the project earmarked for commissioning end of next month.
