Government has directed the Zambia National Service (ZNS) command to quickly setup a milling plant to help deal with the national shortage of milling capacity leading to high mealie meal prices in the country.
Defence Deputy Minister in charge of Rural Development and National Service Joseph Lungu said the move will help stabilize mealie meal prices by flooding the market with cheaper mealie meal.
Col. Lungu was speaking at Mangango ZNS Camp on his familiarization tour of ZNS offices in Western province.
He noted that ZNS has the capacity to become a major supplier of agro-produce in the region if given the necessary equipment.
Col. Lungu who bemoaned the maize yields the service has produced during the last farming season however said that government will empower the service with new farming machinery to promote mechanized agriculture production in all ZNS units.
He disclosed that government will purchase tractors, planters, sprayers and national centre pivot irrigation systems as a permanent feature for ZNS production units to which Mangango ZNS camp will benefit once it’s connected to the electricity national grid.
Meanwhile, the Defence Deputy Minister explained government’s removal of subsidies on fuel and maize to make the officers understand government operations.
He explained that government was losing about KR 300 through subsidies every month thereby deepening poverty levels in the country.
Col. Lungu said the removal of subsidies will help turn around the economy.
He further urged officers to remain committed to service by displaying loyalty, accountability and patriotism to government through quality service delivery.
ZANIS
State farm? Cheap meAlie meal!
Subsidised Mealie meal what a joke
ZNS has road making equipment but you re busy giving road construction contracts to chines.
We have heard this nonsense before from other quasi communists like Kaunda. Lungu, be reminded that the taxpayer is losing 82 x $1600 a month in fuel allowances for Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Not to mention K72m per month in bogus rentals for these leeches. PF is a criminal regime.
hahahahaha
The best joke of the day….. welcome back to UNIP
Bwana Bob Sichinga so called Harvard graduate has now ran out of ideas.
At what price will national service sell the product? I guess either at subsidies price or market price?
The boat is really falling apart
THE BOAT NEVER EVEN SET SAIL. THE CAPTAIN WENT TO SLEEP AND HE IS STILL SLEEPING.
This is interesting,
ZNS will flood the market with cheaper mealie meal, how? of course subsidised through govt funding.
If market is flooded with cheaper mealie meal, what does that mean? It means other private players are out of business – they may venture in other businesses.
If private players venture out of mealie meal production, what does that mean? It means govt becomes the single monopoly. Of course this would come with absolute loss of jobs and emplyment and livelyhood for many Zambians.
If govt becomes a single monopoly what does that mean? It means two things: they will control the price ( it can either go up or down based on govt police and funding(which is subsidie)).
It also means that, by having a single institution for our food security, if anything goes…
These are knee jerk reactions . You have ministers that have very little understanding if any of the ramifications of Government pronouncements. The fact that GRZ has decided to scrap subsidies on fuel and maize means that the price of mealie meal will definitely skyrocket .
You cannot remove subsidies in the name of cost saving and in the same breath propose subsidies to National Service. They can set up a million milling plants , but with no money to buy maize at market rates, the plants will be idling.
From a business perspective it’s a good decision to scrap the maize subsidies, but from a political one I doubt it that PF have guts to take the public outcry and its ramifications in the coming elections.
It really seems Economics is a foreign language in PF
Not really Sir, economics is only a theory to many of you living abroad and making comments on issues you claim you understand and yet all you know are just theories based on imaginary success stories. please enjoy your kangaroos .
Why don’t you setup a mill to help your PF government so the mealie meal can be very more cheaper?
It also means that, by having a single institution for our food security, if anything goes wrong in one way or the other with this single monopoly the entire nation is totally threatened with hunger, lack of nutrition, disease, poverty, etc.
But do we care as Zambians? Generally, it appears we don’t.
May God help us!
“Government has directed the Zambia National Service (ZNS) command to quickly setup a milling plant to help deal with the national shortage of milling capacity leading to high mealie meal prices in the country.”
If things would be done by simply giving directives and orders then Zambia would be the most developed country in Africa. These P.F. I.D.I.O.T.S need to stop havig wishful thinking and get down to work. Talk is cheap and Zambians want to see results.
can you kwamukwikili set up a milling plant in this river,..
Finally the Government has woken up from the slumber. Thanks for heeding to this suggestion. Millers were thinking they were clever, getting subsidized maize and increasing prices anyhow. Thank you PF and please bring on the machinery. For this Autralian fake engineer, let him understand that PF has a socialist approach to governance. Socilaism iliche.
We’ve lived through this nonsense before. Shortly after the food riots in June 1986, Kaunda blamed the milling companies for the high corn meal prices. He proceeded to nationalise them. But this did not stop food 4 years later in 1990. Your ZNS also has to operate on sound business principles if they engage in milling otherwise they will squander public money like all parastatals have done before!
Bring back Coupons also.
Unbelieveable!!!
If the cause of high mealie meal prices is lack of capacity by current millers to satisfy the “nshima market”, then new players (ZNS, Mr Kantwa, or anybody else) in this market can only help bring down the prices (the laws of supply and demand). But if the govt is planning on supplying cheap (subsidized) maize to ZNS for them to mill it and then turn around and sell mealie meal at below market value, then this scheme won’t survive for too long.
Let ZNS source maize at market value; help increase the abundance of corn meal on the market, and then let the laws of economics (supply and demand) take care of the rest. This will be the surest way for the govt to permanently and surgically take care of this “cancer” of high mealie meal prices. Any Socialist gimmicks will fail!