Zambia and Zimbabwe have selected the African Development Bank as the lead adviser for the $4bn Batoka Gorge project, a hydro-electric dam planned for construction to alleviate both countries’ power shortages. The project is to involve funding from the two countries’ governments, loans and grants.

The 2400-megawatt Batoka Gorge will have a capacity of 1.2bn cubic metres of water when finished, although financial mobilisation will not begin until 2018.

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Zambian and Zimbabwean officials have seen interest from Chinese investment bodies as well as private European banks, South African banks and individual local investors.

The two countries currently rely heavily on the Kariba dam hydro-electric power station, which has suffered from increasingly low water levels in recent years. The Batoka Gorge project will join a number of hydro-electric projects taking place across the African continent, including four dams in Cameroon, one in Togo and one in the DR Congo.   

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