Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has come under fire following accusations by the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) Women’s Council that he has failed to eliminate nepotism in government offices.

The National Chairlady of the Council, Faith Muntali, who made the allegations at a press conference in Lusaka on Tuesday, said since 2022, experienced individuals had been losing their jobs due to favoritism towards relatives of government officials.

“This has caused concern in our nation as qualified and experienced people are losing their positions based on tribal lines,” Muntali said.

She further alleged that experienced and qualified citizens were being sidelined, intimidated, and mistreated because they did not belong to the preferred tribes in the country.

“President Hichilema, we call on you to uproot this tree of nepotism,” Muntali said.

She also challenged President Hichilema to review the details of employees in parastatal and public offices, including the names of the employees, date of employment or promotion, and the predecessor in the position.

The Nigerian government says in 2023 alone, citizens spent a total of N16.5 trillion to buy diesel, petrol and generators in order to get electricity.

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who revealed this at the 2024 Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja, also stated that the formal power sector, including electricity generation, transmission, and distribution companies, made a total revenue of N1tn last year amid the over N16tn spent by power consumers in the informal sector.

He, however, noted that electricity consumers on Band A category now get up to 24 hours supply of power as the government had geared up efforts at improving the power sector.

“If you know how much our people spend buying diesel, petrol, generators, and servicing them in a year; the last study we had in 2023, a total of N16.5tn was spent on this in self (power) generation,” Adelabu said.

“Even a number of the industries are off the grid. They now have their captive power between their environments with gas-powered generators.

“So spendings in this sector out of the grid is close to N20tn. And let me blow your mind, the revenue for the entire industry, the grid, I mean the formal power sector was just N1tn for 2023 that goes to the generation companies, transmission company and the distribution companies.

“Just N1tn formal revenue. But the informal spendings on generators, diesel, petrol, was close to N20tn.

“Even if it is just a quarter of that is put in the official power sector, we are talking about incremental revenue of N5tn that will bring the sector’s revenue to N6tn, sincerely we are going to have something close to uninterrupted 24/7 power supply in Nigeria.”

The Power Minister said the “government is currently working hard to earn the trust of power consumers,” stressing that it would be better to spend on electricity provided by the national grid because it is cheaper than spending on diesel or petrol-powered generators.

“That is what we are working on to ensure that that trust is back, that that confidence is back. And all the manufacturing companies that are doing self-generation can cut it off and reconnect to the national grid because it is the cheapest source.

“As at the last study, Band A customers are enjoying uninterrupted supply and pay N206. For the companies that have their captive power using gas, they pay about N290/kwh.

“For those that are using petrol generators, it is about N450 per kilowatt-hour. And for those using diesel to power their generators, it is upward of N900. So it is still the cheapest, most efficient and the least cost for our productive activities.”