Zambia’s Infrastructure : A Continental Perspective
Infrastructure improvements contributed 0.6 percentage points to Zambia's annual per capital GDP growth over the past decade, mostly because of exponential growth in information and communication services. The power sector, by contrast, pulled...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110317140326 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3365 |
Summary: | Infrastructure improvements contributed
0.6 percentage points to Zambia's annual per capital
GDP growth over the past decade, mostly because of
exponential growth in information and communication
services. The power sector, by contrast, pulled the growth
rate down by more than 0.1 percentage points. Improving
Zambia's infrastructure endowment could boost growth by
up to 2 percentage points per year. Zambia's relatively
high generation capacity and power consumption are
accompanied by fewer power outages than elsewhere in the
region. But Zambia's power sector emphasizes the mining
industry, while household electrification is about half that
in other resource-rich countries. Zambia's power
tariffs, among the lowest in Africa, are less than half the
level needed to accelerate electrification and keep pace
with mining sector demands. In power as in just about every
other aspect of infrastructure, rural Zambians lag well
behind their African peers. In a country where 70 percent of
the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood,
this represents a huge drag on the economy. Zambia would
need to spend an average of $1.6 billion a year over the
decade 2006-15 to develop the infrastructure found in the
rest of the developing world. This is equivalent to 20
percent of Zambia's GDP and about double the
country's rate of investment in recent years. Closing
the country's annual infrastructure funding gap of $500
million requires raising more funds, looking for more
cost-effective ways to meet infrastructure targets, and
eliminating the inefficiencies that cause the loss of $300
million annually. |
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