A South African energy sector trade and business delegation recently had another successful trip to Zambia. The trade mission was jointly led by Trade Invest Africa and the South African Electrotechnical Export Council.

“We are impressed by the calibre of companies from the South African Energy sector represented here and task the delegation leaders to revert back to us with concrete outputs from this mission,” said Mr Patrick Chisanga, Director General of the Zambia Development Agency, when he met with the visiting business delegation from South Africa at the ZDA offices on Monday 30th January 2017.

Mr Chisanga also thanked the Zambian High Commission in Pretoria for their continued efforts to promote Zambia as an investment destination. This was evidenced by the fact that this was the third visit this year already by Mr Mande Kauseni- who had led a number of missions from South Africa to Zambia.

The specialised energy sector trade mission to Zambia was a sector-specific mission to Lusaka focused on meeting with various public and private organisations in the Zambian energy sector. The mission aim was to facilitate market access and unlock investment opportunities in the Zambian energy sector in response to the deficit in generation capacity, transmission line roll-out and universal access to electricity. It followed the inaugural South Africa-Zambia Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) held in Pretoria in December 2016, on the margins of the State Visit by the Zambian president. During the JCC the two countries committed to collaborate in unlocking trade and investment opportunities for mutual benefit.

The South African delegation which included companies comprising AAB, ACTOM, CONCO, CONLOG, PFISTERER, POWERTECH TRANFORMERS, RETHUSENG LIVE LINE SERVICES, THYSSEN KRUPP, TRANS AFRICA PROJECTS, held discussions with ZCCM-Investment Holdings, the Energy Regulation Board and ZDA, the Ministry of Commerce, OPPI, the Rural Electrification Authority, Copperbelt Energy Corporation and the Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia.

A key component to this trade mission was the inclusion of the South African financial institutions namely the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa as part of the business delegation. 

Ms Lerato Mataboge commented that Trade Invest Africa, a division of the South Africa Department of Trade and Industry (dti), had responded to the call of South African business to ensure that trade missions be sector focused and include financiers. “Trade Invest Africa is keen to support this sector led approach to Trade Missions. Together with the developmental financial institutions we have also encouraged the delegates to focus their attention on not just discussing business but identifying specific projects, so that we can progress to the next level of engagement with business.

Our role is to co-ordinate and drive implementation of South Africa’s economic strategy for the entire continent, premised on the developmental integration approach, through close collaboration with the private sector. African financial institutions with their developmental approach to investment are therefore a pivotal part of our strategic approach to intra Africa trade and investment,” said Mataboge.

Also commenting on the innovative approach to doing business on African continent, Ms Chiboni Evans the CEO of the South African Electrotechnical Export Council (SAEEC) said that South African firms in the electrotechnical sector are partners of choice in enabling Africa meet the needs of Africans.

“As stated by Mr Pius Kasolo the CEO of ZCCM-IH; we need to start trusting in our own solutions as Africans. Africa has product and service solutions together with financial resources from both the private and public sector to resolve a significant number of our infrastructure build challenges”.

The mission leaders are optimistic that this innovative approach to doing business will result in positive results to both the Zambian and South African economies. A follow up to this energy and project focused mission would be the participation of the various public and private sector institutions from both Zambia and South Africa in the upcoming Africa Energy Indaba to be held in Johannesburg from 21 – 22nd February 2017.