Zambia is looking for $800 million investment in order to improve its power infrastructure, reports Engineering News.

The announcement comes as extensive power outages in Africa’s biggest copper producer have resulted in copper mines reducing production, and other industries coming to a near standstill.

Finance Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, said in a letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund that the Zambian utility company Zesco Ltd and the government would borrow up to $400 million externally in 2009 from lenders in Japan, India, and the West.

Zambia’s rapid economic growth has strained its aging power infrastructure, which was commissioned in the 1970s, as gross domestic product has averaged growth of 5% in recent years.