The Zambian government on Monday expressed optimism about ensuring universal coverage of electricity to all parts of the country by 2030.
Peter Kapala, the Minister of Energy, said the country's power utility, Zesco Limited, has since embarked on a program to connect more people to the national grid through increased connections.
He said that there were about 67,000 pending connections as at the end of December last year which the power utility had been dismantling in order to have more people access electricity.
"Dismantling of this backlog of connection applications is ongoing and am happy to say we are getting there," he said in a statement.
According to him, more than 7,000 connections have already been done through standard connections and the remaining ones will need poles or transformers and other materials.
Early this year, Zambia's power utility issued a tender for the supply of 40,000 poles to be used in electricity connections. But the minister said the power utility requires about 150,000 poles to clear all pending connections.
Zambia's access to electricity currently stands at 31 percent in urban areas and only four percent in rural areas.
Editor: Galia
