UK supports green growth in Zambia

• The Foreign Secretary will announce a UK clean energy partnership with Zambia today at the end of a four-day visit to Africa.
• New ambitious targets set for green investment include up to £2.5 billion of UK private sector funding and up to £500 million in UK government backed investments.
• In the first Foreign Secretary visit to Zambia in over 30 years, James Cleverly will also tour a copper mine and sign a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals.  

The UK will boost its commitment to a green economic partnership with Zambia today [3 August] as the Foreign Secretary sets out ambitious new targets to drive green investment.

The new targets will be delivered through the UK-Zambia Green Growth Compact, which aims to drive investment in Zambia’s green economy, strengthening the growing economic partnership between Zambia and the UK, tackling climate change, creating jobs and new business opportunities in both countries.  

Supporting the Foreign Secretary’s drive to prioritise future-focussed, mutually beneficial partnerships on his visit to Africa this week, these new targets include generating up to £2.5 billion of British private sector investment in Zambia’s mining, minerals and renewable energy sectors, delivering up to £500 million of UK Government-backed investments and mobilising up to £150 million of private sector investment into small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). UK and Zambian firms will benefit from the commercial opportunities, growing the economy of both countries.

The Foreign Secretary will also tour the Mimbula Copper Mine, where British firm Moxico Resources will invest an additional $210 million (around £164 million) of private sector funding to expand production at the site, increasing exports, and economic growth in both Zambia and the UK.

Cleverly will also sign a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals which will lay the foundation for further UK support for the responsible mining of copper, cobalt and other metals essential to the global clean energy transition.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: 

“Working together with our partners in Zambia, the UK is driving the clean energy transition. The UK-Zambia Green Growth Compact and our landmark agreement on critical minerals will support investment between UK and Zambian business, creating jobs in both countries, and improving environmental and social standards.

“Together we will build a stronger, greener, more prosperous future for both countries, which benefits us all.” 

More broadly, the Foreign Secretary will see how UK support is making a difference to communities across Zambia. In Ndola, close to Zambia’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, he will open a secondary school which is part of the UK-supported Promoting Equality in African Schools initiative and supports children to access high quality secondary education.  

At Kasengu Market, he will meet beneficiaries of the UK-funded Social Cash Transfer Programme to see first-hand the positive impact UK aid is having for those most in need in the country. In Lusaka, he will discuss with President Hichilema and Foreign Minister Kakubo a wide range of issues relevant to the UK-Zambia partnership, including support for debt restructure and IMF-backed reform programme, regional security cooperation, and our joint desire for a fairer and more responsive international financial system. 

The Foreign Secretary’s visit to Zambia concludes a three-country tour, where he boosted the UK’s future-focussed, mutually-beneficial partnerships with Nigeria and Ghana and reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to advance trade, investment and green growth in Africa. 

[ENDS]

Notes to editors:  

• New ambitions set out today will build on the initial commitments made when the UK-Zambia Green Compact was signed in 2021 by the previous UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford and Zambian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Stanley Kakubo.
• The £2.5bn target for private investments refers to UK private investors, supported by the UK Government but not involving public funds or finance.   
• The £500m of UK backed investment refers to blended financing, for example private investment including a component of UK public funding or finance.

• Achievements under the Green Growth Compact already include over $100m (over £78 million) mobilised for Zambian SMEs and a commitment of an additional $50m (around £39 million) from British International Investment as a credit line for Zambia’s leading bank to boost climate finance and SMEs. 

• The critical minerals memorandum is a partnership agreement that will provide UK support to Zambia’s efforts to maximise benefits from its own resources and help leverage foreign direct investment, including from the UK into Zambia, in support of responsible mining for minerals, which are key to the clean energy transition.