China to lend $1.2bn to restore coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe

China will lend US$1.2 billion to help rehabilitate Zimbabwe’s aging coal-fired Hwange power plant, Bloomberg reported, citing an announcement from Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa made as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived for a two-day state visit fresh from an ongoing climate change summit in Paris. “There are other power projects which are going to be funded by China,” Chinamasa said, citing licenses that have been granted to Makomo Resources, China Africa Sunlight Energy and Per Lusulu Power. Zimbabwe currently rations daily power to consumers because it cannot meet average total demand of 2,200 megawatts, with production cut to about half of an installed capacity of 1,800 megawatts in recent years.