ZIMBABWE has been rated among five countries that are performing badly in providing power supply in the African region, a report compiled by an international think-tank has shown.
Report by Business Reporter
According to the latest Afrobarometer survey that was released recently titled What People Want From Government, the country was one of the lowly-ranked countries out of the 34 sampled.
Zimbabwe and Guinea were rated lowest in terms of providing power supply together with Nigeria, Uganda and Liberia. Mauritius, on the other hand, the report stated, has one of the best energy sector infrastructures together with Kenya, Algeria, Botswana and South Africa.
Zimbabwe has been failing to meet power demand which stands at 2 000 megawatts at peak periods as local power generation continued depressed at an average of 1 000 megawatts.
The local energy sector is faced with numerous challenges that include old equipment and lack of investments in new power stations.
The country has been subjected to widespread load-shedding as Zesa, the power utility provider, battles to provide power supply to consumers.
The manufacturing sector has revealed that the cost of having power is high for the sector due to the other costs that they will incur in the absence of power.
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“Over 50% of citizens rate governments poorly on provision of basic services such as clean water, sanitation and power supply although popular assessments of government performance in education and basic health service delivery significantly better,” the report states.
The report further shows that African health service facilities have long wait times and lack medicine while the education sector in the region lack textbooks in schools.
The report shows that easy access to placement in public primary schools is high in countries such as Algeria, Mauritius, Niger, Burundi and Botswana while access to placement in public primary schools is difficult in Mozambique, Egypt, Liberia, Guinea and Cape Verde.
According to the report, 69% of Africans approve governments’ efforts in combating the HIV/Aids pandemic.
