Zimbabwe

Getting Electricity in

Zimbabwe

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Zimbabwe.

This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

Compare Zimbabwe to 185 other economies.

  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
  • City: Harare

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit application to ZETDC and await way leave approvals and quotation

The application is submitted by the client/electrical contractor in person. To the application one needs to attach Company Registration Certificate copy. After the application is submitted ZESA will be working on issuing the quotation to the client. At this point ZESA will also seek and obtain way leave approvals from the Municipalities


Agency: ZETDC 		40 calendar days no charge
* 2 Await external site inspection by ZETDC

The site inspection is necessary to determine the “supply termination point”. During the inspection, the utility also looks into the question of whether additional material is needed.
Agency: ZETDC 		1 calendar day no charge
3 The customer purchases material for external connection works

Customers need to buy transformers and switchgear for the utility. The customer would buy the missing material from local providers. Transformers have to be of ZESA approved type.

Agency: Local providers 		19 calendar days no charge
* 4 Await internal wiring inspection from ZETDC

On completion of the internal installation the electrician gives ZESA a call and ZESA will carry out an inspection. The electrician submits the completion form to ZESA. Electrical standards are issued by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) and ZESA. The standards require ZESA to do an inspection.
Agency: ZETDC 		4 calendar days no charge
5 Await installation of the transformer by ZETDC

The transformer is installed by the utility.
The utility also does the connection between the internal sub-distribution board in the warehouse and the meter board.




Agency: ZETDC 		9 calendar days USD 24,947.8
6 Await meter installation and electricity starts flowing by ZETDC

A separate team than the one that does the connection works installs the meter. This team does a life test of the connection, tests the cable pressure, installs the meter and energizes the connection.



Agency: ZETDC 		38 calendar days USD 122.5
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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