H-Metro
Tanaka Mahanya
GOVERNMENT has said it will engage financial institutions to offer favourable loans to people for the purchase of solar products to mitigate against the power outages.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Engineer Gloria Magombo, said they were working to ensure that renewable power products are available on long-term loan agreements.
“What we need as a country is to ensure that our financial services recognise the need to support consumers when they buy such products so that the products can be available on a long-term lease procurement.
“We are working on a plan, especially for solar water heaters, to see how we can support some of our financial institutions so that people buy, say maybe, over a two-year period.
“We want to urge financial institutions to see value in doing that.
“This ensures that these technologies are affordable to the people.”
She added:
“What Government has done in assisting consumers is ensuring that we remove the duty off the importation of solar projects into the country.
“We have also engaged the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) as we have defined product quality to ensure that when people procure, they are sure that the products will last long.”
