Zambia signs $300m joint venture to electrify Lobito Corridor

Zambia’s national electricity utility, ZESCO, has established a $300m joint venture with Anzana Electric Group to provide first-time grid connections for nearly two million Zambians along the Lobito Corridor by 2030.

The joint venture is the latest investment to be announced in the corridor, an ambitious US and EU-backed project connecting the port of Lobito in Angola to the Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Copperbelt in Zambia. The corridor is envisaged as a major infrastructure hub and transit route to facilitate the export of critical minerals and other products from the Central African interior to key global markets.

The joint venture with Anzana, backed by private US investors and UK government-owned Gridworks Development Partners, paves the way for approximately $300m in blended commercial and concessional capital investments to enable the rehabilitation and expansion of the national electricity network.

Hydropower and distribution boost

The collaboration will support new electricity generation, including run-of-river hydropower and electricity distribution primarily in rural areas. It plans to invest in electrifying households, businesses, and industry, and in new distributed generation to support the reliability of supply.

The agreement envisions that Anzana will lead the development of a pilot project in the North-Western Province of Zambia to accelerate the first connections in 2026. Anzana and other development partners will jointly invest $50m to enable around 40,000 new household and business connections and add up to eight megawatts of new generation over the course of two years, before expanding the scope to encompass the entire Lobito Corridor region.  

“This is about more than infrastructure, it is about regional integration, jobs, and powering a better future for Zambians along the Lobito economic corridor,” said ZESCO managing director Justin Loongo. “We are excited to partner with Anzana who is employing an innovative and inclusive approach to attract capital and rapidly increase electrification rates in rural Zambia.”

Anzana spreads wings

Anzana develops, invests in and operates hydropower and grid distribution projects and has a presence in East, Central, and Southern Africa. The firm says it is actively investing in, developing, constructing, and operating projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia, and Malawi.

“The strategic Lobito economic corridor approach is a model for future regional trade and development,” said Brian Kelly, CEO of Anzana. “We are honoured to partner with ZESCO and the Government of Zambia to be the Lobito electrification partner and connect millions of Zambians to the opportunities that reliable electricity can enable.”

During the US-Africa Business Summit in Luanda, Angola in June, the firm expressed its interest in acquiring a minority equity interest in the Ruzizi III Holding Power Company. The company is involved in the 206 MW Ruzizi III Regional Hydropower Project, a tri-national public-private partnership in the Great Lakes Region including Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.