The third and final phase of the African Development Bank's capacity development initiative in Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) to support the development of the Batoka Gorge Hydro-electric Power Scheme kicked off yesterday, 13 June 2016 at the state of the art African Development Bank's Southern Africa Resource Centre in Centurion, just outside of Pretoria.

Seventeen participants from the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) are taking part in this week-long training to consolidate, reflect and refine their learnings from two previous phases of training convened this year. The ZRA is a corporation jointly and equally owned by the two governments and is responsible for spearheading the trans-national collaboration between Zambia and Zimbabwe to realize the successful development and launch of the BHES.

In September 2015, the two governments approached the African Development Bank to be the lead project financier with the World Bank as a co-financer, and both governments taking modest equity project participation. Lighting up the continent is one of the African Development Bank's priority preoccupations given prevailing public sector deficits and a myriad of competing demands for infrastructure development.

Managed by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), renaissance of the project was kicked off with its approval by the ZRA Council of Ministers in February 2012. Contract award, works commencement and commissioning will commence next year with a target completion date of 2023. This project is expected to produce 1,600 MW of power and has the potential to make Zambia and Zimbabwe net exporters of power across the SADC region. For more information about the initiative please visit http://ametrade.org/capacity-development-in-ppps/.