Agriculture and Livestock Minister Bob Sichinga says the PF government’s decision to recapitalize Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) and procure from the institution D Compound fertilizer under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) has created 320 permanent jobs.
Mr Sichinga told Parliament in a ministerial statement today that this has increased the total workforce at NCZ to 635 while another 556 jobs have been created in the ten provinces bring a total labour force to 1,190 people.
He says this has significantly improved the incomes of the workers and improved the livelihoods of people not only in Kafue town but also in other in districts where jobs have been created.
Mr Sichinga has also revealed that government is planning for progressively moving to local production of Top dressing Urea fertilizer BY 2015 in addition to D Compound fertilizer which is already being produced at NCZ.
The Agriculture Minister adds that as of the 12th of October NCZ had dispatched 65,955 metric tonnes of D-Compound fertilizer to the district centers throughout the country.
And Mr. Sichinga says the Food Reserve Agency had as of 31st October purchased a total of 426,150 metric tonnes of maize valued at K554 million.
He says the ministry of Finance has so far released K9.2 million to the FRA for payment to farmers, transporters and other logistics.
Mr Sichinga adds that as of 31st October, a total K416 million had already been paid to farmers leaving a balance of K138.04 million.
awe mwandi iyi yena ni working gvt. we cant take this away from them. weldone pf
well done PF but stop fighting naimwe, you are putting us off.
Peace and Prosperity to mother Zambia
A total of 1,190 jobs have been added, 320 permanent. Is this bad, good or great? I don’t know, what is this number being compared to? How many people actually need jobs? What % does 320 permanent jobs represent? Is this good enough or can more be done? What is the target number of jobs that the Government wants to create? I have more questions than I have answers, but I do wish we could put things in context and really start to ask some tough questions. We can only say something about whether or not this number of jobs is great when we know what it is being measured against. I am just saying…..
liar..this chap is just an arm chair minister..
This is a total lie. If there were a total of 320 jobs created in Kafue the economic landscape would have changed. Let us assume that each of those 320 workers earns 2,500 that makes about K800, 000 new money each month circulating around. Is there evidence of this in Kafue no. How about housing. It has remained the same. Landlords are looking for tenets. The obvious evidence of economic boom in Zambia–bars would have mushroomed everywhere. Yes, Zambians love their beer and those in Kafue are no exceptions. So, where are the jobs Bob? My cousin works there and his hours continue to be cut at times and his salary coming late at times. What are you talking about Mr. Harvard turned into fertilizer dealer?
what lie when your relatives are working and fertilizer is being supplied to farmers. you think you are the only one reading this news. Workers at NCZ are also reading so Let them tell us if this not true. But they cant because it is true. shame upon you haters.
Iwe Wise do you live in Kafue for you to make such comments?I lived in Kafue for some time and NCZ was practically dead!!There was nothing happening and most people were just at home or drinking beer while wondering if ever the NCZ would ever be operational again.You cannot measure the ecomonic activities of a town by the number of bars or the number of drunks in the town.In fact when there is nothing to do thats when people tend to drink beer a lot and when people are working they dont spend as much time in bars as they would if they are not working.Muletasha!!
Bob just yaps this guy just like talking talking
Are these re-employed people or truly new jobs?
As a Chemical Engineering student at CBU I visited NCZ twice and that plant is an engineering marvel and a perfect learning environment for Chemical Engineers. It was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan. There is no nation that can survive without food. Government should partner with large foreign chemical companies on a 50-50 basis to recapitalize the plant fully. I suggest SASOL of South Africa or Sinochem from China. Full recapitalization , upgrade and modernization of NCZ should be a high priority of government.
The factory is obsolete.
Mr upcoming Chemical Engineer, Zambians have been learning for ages now. Its time we started making things instead of just learning without any output until Jesus comes.
@Spartan I am not an upcoming Chemical Engineer, I graduated 6 years ago. I was talking about the time I was a student. We used to have an annual visits to several industrial plant including NCZ. @ Jay Jay no offense but what do you know about fertilizer manufacture? The process of making fertilizer has never changed. Ammonia is still obtained by the Haber process and Sulfuric acid in the same conventional ways as well. That is why I said in my initial comment that the plant should be upgraded. Some industrial units like heat exchangers, absorbers etc etc have been neglected and let to go to waste. As you know we don’t manufacture most of these equipment in Zambia. So it needs a lot of money for them to be replaced.
THEN EXPLAIN WHY YOU IMPORTED FERTILIZER FROM SAUDI ARABIA .
NCZ should try to produce other products and not just fertilizer. Since inception this plant has only been producing one product or two. Why is it that our Engineers cant INOVATE. The same goes for companies like Mulungushi textiles of Kabwe. They produced the same kind of product until they went into oblivion. Why should we be wearing salaula underwear when we have such a plant and we grow cotton. NCZ can even go into beauty products I guess.
NCZ is a chemical company and not a cosmetic company.
@ kabamba kalande. I was merely giving an example mwebantu shuwa …! Think outside the box! Besides, fertilizer is some kind of chemical and so are cosmetics. This is exactly the reason why Zambia has not developed. How can the whole NCZ just be making compound? They cant even make top dressing or what ever that fertilizer being imported from Saudi Arabia.
It’s shocking to see only 17 comments up to now if it was PF failed project nonsence we could have seen 100 comments,give credit where due,even five jobs created againest projected 1000 is a plus,ati ba Olympia extension you will die with hate,be appreciative your mates in kafue have jobs …@kabamba your contribution made very interesting reading,write more to Shem chaps like jay-jay restrict yourself to football..LOl
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