MINISTER of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane yesterday signed a statutory instrument (SI) which will ensure that public institutions give preference to Zambian citizens in the procurement of goods and services.
Dr Musokotwane said at a media briefing on April 8 that the SI will give preference to citizen-influenced, empowered and owned companies even if their pricing of goods or services is higher than that of foreign companies.
He said citizens’ companies must ensure that their goods and services are of acceptable quality and that Zambian citizens have significant shares and control in the firms.
Dr Musokotwane said another key element of the SI is a reservation scheme where public procurement of goods not exceeding K3 billion will be a preserve of companies owned, influenced or empowered by Zambian citizens.
“Building or construction works of up to K20 billion will be reserved for citizen-influenced, empowered and owned companies,” Dr Musokotwane said.
He said civil and road works contracts of up to K30 billion will also be reserved for companies belonging to citizens.
Dr Musokotwane said another aspect of the SI is that when a foreign company is awarded a contract that needs recruitment of workers, such companies will ensure that 40 percent of key personnel are Zambians.
“We will give exemptions where this is not practical,” he said.
The minister said regulations contained in the SI will come into force 30 days after the instrument is published in the Government gazette.
Dr Musokotwane advised Zambians to be cautious about the issue.
“We should be careful not to focus too much on believing that if we exclude foreigners, we will be better off. We have Zambians doing business in other countries and if we rush in an uncoordinated manner without focusing on the consequences, our fellow Zambians in other countries will suffer the same consequences,” he said.
He said foreigners in most cases create employment for Zambians and that some businesses like special restaurants are exclusively for foreigners.
“Our prosperity must not be seen in terms of blocking non-Zambians,” he said.
And Dr Musokotwane has commended the World Bank for giving Zambia a US$115 million loan for irrigation development.
“We are very happy because we have been negotiating for this loan for a long time,” he said.
Dr Musokotwane said the loan will enable Government to construct a dam which will service both commercial and small-scale farmers in Central Province.
The World Bank approved the credit for the Irrigation Development and Support Project (IDSP) to help Zambia overhaul its irrigation subsector.
World Bank country manager Kapil Kapoor said the credit facility was approved by the bank’s board of directors on april 7 in Washington DC.
Mr Kapoor said the IDSP will help to reduce the poverty gap between the urban and the rural population.
Mr Kapoor said this in a statement released in Lusaka on April 8.
The irrigation project, which will be developed in proposed selected sites, is expected to be implemented over seven years. It is expected to be completed by June 2018.
Mr Kapoor said the project has four components, including irrigated agricultural support services.
And commenting on some components of the project, World Bank senior agriculturalist Indira Ekanayake said the interventions are expected to ensure that agricultural production and crop diversification happen throughout the year.
This will ensure that Zambia’s abundant water resource and arable land are used profitably to realise Zambia’s potential as a breadbasket.
The goal of Zambia’s Sixth National Development Plan for the agriculture sector is to “increase and diversify agriculture production and productivity so as to raise the share of its contribution to Gross Domestic Product by 2015.
Meanwhile, Dr Musokotwane said he will travel to Washington DC next week for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings.
He said the meetings will provide an outlook of the world economy from experts who have gathered data on global economic projections.
Dr Musokotwane will also meet both the World Bank and IMF senior management teams.
He said the gathering will also give him an opportunity to have bilateral meetings with representatives of various countries.
[ Zambia Daily mail ]
AMEN at long last.. So many companies have had HORRIBLE corporate responsibility.. For example companies like Zain give 90% of their works for advertising to foreigners when Zambians can even do just as good work!!
Long overdue, well-done.
quality must be assured not just awarded pantu mu zambian , #1 ba roger 99% of zambian produced adverts (especially the tv ads) are of extremely poor quality so why pay for crap?
Good, but Zambian businesses must ensure that they price their goods competitively and not just for a quick buck.
WELL DONE WAY TO GO !!!!!!!!! WAS WAITING FOR SURE POLICIES AND ALSO LOOK INTO THE ISSUE OF AWARDING LICENSES TO ZAMBIANS WITH THE FINANCIAL ABILITY WHEN IT COMES TO DEVELOPING PROJECTS LIKE COMMUNICATION
WAS REALLY FRUSTRATED WHEN GR Z REFUSED KAVINDELE TO BRING VODACOM IN ZAMBIA!!!!!!!!!
To get the best out of this SI, citizens need to familiarize themselves with the contents of the SI. Iam very sure that many of these foreign companies give prefarence to foreigners.
Brilliant move. One gets a sense of moving forward at last. I can’t just express how happy I am. HOWEVER, I know Zambians to be very poor at deliverying; sometimes collecting money without doing the work or collecting the money and running away. We behave like spolit children. But let us be positive about it and see what happens. Every advanced country has gone through problems. There is no reason why we cannot sail over whatever problems we will face.
The SI specifically says PUBLIC INSTITUTION and not private companies. It excludes the big players such as the mining companies, Zain, MTN, Banks etc. Public Institutions are not good payers such as RDA, FRA they have to always wait for what they call FUNDING. I see a situation where most Zambian Companies will go broke while waiting for funding and as a result mopts projects will stall. This will also encourage insiider trading where officials in these public institutions will form dummy companies to tender for contracts as they already do any way. Its a noble good but mechanisms to police it must be strongly in place.
@ Mwamoneni, I still find this a good start. By the way, the biggest consumer in our country is the government. Rome was not built in a day. Let’s give praise where it’s due. No partisan politics here, just government doing its work.
#9 Mpandashalo, you are right and I said its a noble good but what I am really saying is the real GDP drivers must be included in the procurement thresholds for locals unless we are to resort to the Mugabe route of forcing them to have Zambian participation which of course is un reasonable. Have a good day…
Good initiative and long overdue.
It will empower Zambians and with time and experience, their financial base will widen, technical capabilities and capacities will increase for them to participate in bigger economic venture and pass on the fruits of their hard work to many other Zambians.
Well done.
Please read the statement carefully. It says, “MINISTER of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane yesterday signed a statutory instrument (SI) which will ensure that public institutions give preference to Zambian citizens in the procurement of goods and services.”
Underline the word PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. Therefore, I don’t think this extends to private companies that are still free to utilize the services of any foreign companies. I hope the ZDA implements this requirement when awarding investment licenses.
That is why President Banda has been frustrating the work of the ACC, DEC and police. He even disbanded the Task Force on Corruption so that he can encourage the formation of brief case companies owned by MMD members and his sons to siphon huge amount of money using dubious contract by the so called Zambian companies.
Sad indeed.
The man is vision leeeessssssssssss.
Good news, but Zambians need to change their mentality. I know of times when money is paid upfront, but no work done. Or if work is done, it is the most unprofessional job. Or if goods are supplied, they quote by sometimes more than 100%!