The Zambian government and Huawei Technologies Zambia have confirmed that phase two of the country's communication tower project has been awarded to the Chinese ICT firm.

The project will see close to 500 new communication towers being built around the country at a cost of almost US$300 million.

Phase one of the project was also executed by Huawei Technologies and involved the construction of 200 towers nationally.

At an Huawei Zambia event held this week in Lusaka, the Ministry of Communications and Transport Permanent Secretary Misheck Lungu said the company will also implement phase two of the project.

"We shall soon be commencing phase two of the tower project with Huawei in order to open up Zambia's communication network, especially in rural areas," Lungu said.

Huawei Technologies Country Director Emilion Ming said, "We are looking forward to putting up more towers in rural areas next year."

In April last year, Zambian president Edgar Lungu signed a memorandum of understand (MoU) with China on the awarding of the tender to Huawei Technologies to execute phase two of the tower project.

However after lawmakers from Communications and Transport queried the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) on why phase two of the project was awarded to Huawei Technologies, a company they said failed to meet technical specifications in phase one, the regulator denied the awarding of the contract.

According to a report by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), towers under phase one of the project were poorly done by Huawei as many of the towers did not meet the required technical specifications.

Following the report, ZICTA then forced Huawei to rework the towers that did not meet the required specifications (five kilometer radius).