The financing covers generation, transmission and a power trading business, and depends on Zambia's open-access framework working in practice.
Mercuria, the Geneva-based energy and commodities group, has signed a US$250 million financing agreement with Exergy, an Africa-focused energy investor, for power assets in Zambia and the wider Southern African region. The agreement was signed in Lusaka in the last week of September 2026 and is subject to regulatory approvals.
What is being financed
The money is for assets already under development, or to be developed, by three Exergy subsidiaries: Lunzua Power Company in generation, Lusitu Transmission and Distribution Company in transmission, and Kanona, a power trading business. Reports also refer to a proposed transmission corridor linking Zambia to the East African power market. The split between debt, equity and any offtake or trading arrangement has not been disclosed, nor have the advisers on either side.
Green Building Africa describes the deal as Mercuria’s first entry into Zambia’s power market and one of the largest private capital commitments to the country’s electricity industry.
The regulatory context
The financing is a bet on Zambia’s market reforms more than on any single plant. Ecofin Agency reports that Zambia’s installed capacity rose from about 3,100 MW in 2021 to about 4,576 MW in 2026, with solar growing from 88 MW to 841 MW. The change it highlights is the open-access framework, which lets independent producers use the networks to sell electricity directly to customers, together with a single licensing system. The regulator approved 135 power purchase and supply agreements in 2025, against 70 in 2024, according to the same report.
Why it matters
A trading house putting capital into generation, wires and a trading licence at once is a vertical position, and it only works if wheeling charges, network access and licensing hold up in practice. For lawyers, the work sits in the documents that make open access bankable: use-of-system and wheeling agreements with the grid operator, direct supply contracts with mining and industrial buyers, licence conditions for the trading entity, and cross-border arrangements if the East African corridor proceeds. For Zambia, it is a test of whether market liberalisation can draw commodity-house capital into power infrastructure rather than into metals alone.
What to watch
The regulatory approvals the agreement depends on, disclosure of the financing structure, and the identity of the first projects to draw on the facility. The deal is recorded in The Meridian’s transactions tracker, Meridian’s first Zambian entry.
Leave a Reply