North Western Energy Corporation (NWEC)-plans to list…

North Western Energy Corporation (NWEC) has announced plans to list on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) as it seeks to raise fresh capital for its diversification programme and also allow Zambians and others investors own stake in the company. NWEC Managing Director Andrew Kamanga says recent government successes in stabilizing macroeconomic fundamentals and the progressive energy reforms have put Zambia on solid footing and in a better position to avoid power crises similar to last year’s. NWEC, Zambia’s largest independent power distributor with a 17-year record of operations in key districts in North Western province – Solwezi, Kalumbila and Lumwana – is eyeing to develop solar PV power plants in Solwezi and some coal-fired thermal plants in Southern province.

Kamanga said apart from supporting ongoing expansions of its existing operations in North Western province, NWEC also wants to raise additional capital as it targets to supply power to upcoming housing projects of an estimated 5, 00 units each in Lusaka and Eastern province. “We are at a point where we believe bringing in new investors and new capital is going to strengthen the company and this listing gives an opportunity to the rest of the Zambians to participate in being a shareholder in North Western Energy Corporation,” Mr. Kamanga said in an interview from the Africa’s Energy Conference in South Africa where NWEC is among the sponsors of this year’s event.

“We’re now moving from being a private company to partially being a public listed company and we think our presence here will help to create rapport with possible investors targeting the Zambian market because we have quite a number of equity investors at the conference who are on the lookout for opportunities and so this gives us that head start as we plan our listing,” he added. Kamanga said plans to diversify NWEC’s business model will require an injection of fresh capital. According to Mr.

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Kamanga, NWEC is in advanced discussion with different developers for partnership as Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors. He says improved economic environment in the country coupled with progressive energy reforms such as current steady migration to cost-reflective tariffs is expected to support investments in new generation sources to avoid the power crisis of 2025 which saw rolling blackouts of up to 20 hours. He also supported the government’s ambitions of mining 3 million metric tonnes of copper by 2033 as well as lifting power generation capacity to about 10, 000 megawatts (MW) by the same period from the current 3, 909 (MW).

“GDP is up this year, inflation is in single digits now and with the exchange rate equally performing well; these parametres are a good base to prepare for the future and of course we still think the government targets in terms of copper production and the 10, 000 megawatts is achievable,” said Mr. Kamanga also disclosed that NWEC has applied for membership of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) as it seeks to join the growing list of private power traders in the region.

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