GOVERNMENT has created more than 300,000 jobs since the Patriotic Front (PF) came into office, Acting President Alexander Chikwanda has said.
Mr Chikwanda said it is important for Zambians to have faith in the Government’s ability to deliver and appealed to all to be role models in the path for the country’s growth agenda.
“People’s patience spans are overstretched. It is however, important that our people have faith in Government’s ability to deliver. Zambia is on the move and we should all ensure we are a role model in development in the same way we have been as a united and peaceful country that revolves on tolerance and accommodation,” Mr Chikwanda said.
He said the backlogs of development arrears that had unavoidably accumulated overtime could not be wiped out overnight and called for a resolve to work extra hard.
He reiterated that Government had prioritised job creation especially in view of efforts to boost investment in agriculture and forestry.
Mr Chikwanda, who is also Finance Minister, said Government would engage the expertise of farmers through the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) to explore the possibility of a sizeable kwacha dominated bond targeted at Agriculture and Forestry.
“The PF with the dynamic leadership of President Sata in the driving seat is moving the country’s agenda in ways never seen before. Real estates are booming throughout the country, infrastructure is expanding and social sectors of education and health are advancing to new frontiers.
“Agriculture is improving and there are big corporate agricultural investments which will have a very salutary impact on the economy,” he said.
He was speaking when he launched the Zambia Development Effectiveness Review Report which will provide an overview of Zambia’s development progress.
This is the first time that the report was done for the country covering data up to the end of 2012.
He said Government welcomed the review and expected it would optimize the spirit of innovation aimed at rendering greater effectiveness.
Mr Chikwanda said the launch of the 2013 report needed to be a platform for even more determined endeavors to extend the frontiers of our country’s development with the objective of banishing poverty.
He expressed concern over the African continent being at extremely low ebb of development especially seen against the background of pronounced incidences of poverty.
He said increase in inter African trade would widen the country’s development prospects and be a mutual strength in the process reducing that would reduce vulnerability to external shock.
He called for increased support to women in practical projects that would back the enterprise of the female folk which would make a difference to the country’s fortunes.
He said Zambian women constituted a vast reservoir of enterprise and creativity as they were the backbone of small scale agriculture in the rural community which accounted for the bulk production.
African Development Bank (AfDB) resident representative Freddie Kwesiga said the Bank would continue working with the country in order to move the development agenda forward.
He said Zambia’s economy had performed well over the past decade achieving macroeconomic stability and growth rates averaging more than 6.5per cent.
Yes it has but 99% of those are salaula jobs,countless new district administrators and a bunch of assistant ministers.
With zambia’s population predicted at 15m that is only 2% of job created Sir in 4 years basically 0.5% since you have come to power.
You are either becoming delusional Mr Chikwanda or you are now showing your old age, these are numbers that should bring shame than the game you are implying.
You have lost the plot.
Try again.
Thanks
But Guy Scott said over 600 000 jobs have been created, who is telling the truth here? When are PF senior officials going to give out consistent non contradictory messages?
Telling truth in PF is a treason
OFFICIAL statistics claim 61000 jobs.
If this “Finance Minister” cannot even do his homework properly can he be in charge of the Nations economy? No wonder the Kwacha is dropping like a stone!
Useless Minister, useless PF, appointed by a USELESS PRESIDENT!
I think they are also including jobs created by ZANU-PF
I repeat, come 2016 there MUST be TREASON trials and we shall braai them !!
Well done, but do not let the Kwacha continue in the free fall momentum. Arrest that situation because it is a great measure of economic performance.
Well done? Mr. Chitalu, have you seen the statistics from CSO which say slightly more than 60,000 new jobs have been created. Statistics don’t lie, mate. PF lies.
Please, Floyd, that ‘well done’ statement sounds extremely insulting. We saw the CSO document as alluded to by Mr. Ricky Bobby and i will bet my last depreciated kwacha you saw it also but choose to go the Chikwanda path instead of actual hard evidence. ‘Well done???’ An artist from the Copperbelt has released a song that will soon be a big hit and he is talking about how horrible life is under Sata and he mentions Sata by name and also quotes the ‘Donchi Kubeba’ slogan. He ends the song with a simple statement ‘bushe tukalya imisebo?’ This is on the copperbelt and if i were PF i would worry…
@Ricky Bobby- I know who you are man. How’s the bank?
@ LORD VOLDEMORT (THE DARK LORD) – Sorry, you’re mistaking me for someone else. I’m Ricky Bobby?, not Ricky Bobby. The question mark at the end is part of the spelling of my name. Distinguishes me from all the other thousands of people with the same name.
Ubufi,
naimbi donchi kubeba iyi
Surely this has happened in your dreams bwana Chikwanda and PF. Just because all your nephews and nieces have been given jobs in the foreign mission does not mean all is well. Wait for a few months to come then you will understand how unhappy Zambians are.
Someone told us 600,000 jobs and now another is telling 300, 000 jobs. The truth though is the numbers from the Central Statistics Office of only 61,000 jobs.
That is the problem of lying. You have to lie some more in order to sustain the first lies and in the process you cant remember all the lies and end up being confused in the process.
True# 7, the problem with lying is you have to lie in order to sustain the first lies and in the end you become a serial liar.That’s what pf has become.They lie from sunset to sunrise and even in their dreams they dream lying.
Yaba, Chikwanda kindly fcuk off please.
The time of reckoning is coming? You have lied to us beyond redemption!!!
I ve created 30 which the CSO is yet to capture.
Honourable whose report are we going to believe, VP said 600,000 & you say 300,000 other sources qouting from CSO statistics says 60,000 wooah I repeatedly questioned the rationale of why CEEC can take 1 year & 4 months to fund a project, all approved projects for 2013 on the Copperbelt have not been funded, despite the funds being released to the banks and micro lending insitution. I ask the powers be to go to CEDA website a Botswana empowerment authority like our CEEC here, it takes 14 days to assess and approve an application, now if we had to go by the announced report by Ms Masebe that about 2000 jobs are being anticpated to be created, if the time frame from inception to approval is reduced to say 3 months it means we expect 10,000 + jobs to be created in a year, bushe finshi…
bushe finshi twalufwanyama kanshi? Unless a white man from world bank comes to point out such anomalies, can Hon Sichinga & Hon Kabimba being SG for PF look into this, why the silence, the youths on the Copperbelt are angry and frustrated. If this fails let the president know that something is not right, it is the SMEs who can do wonders in this country, abena Dodia tulandileniko twapapata na CEEC to direct the financial insitutions to release the money to deserving benefitiaries on the CB. Even Hon Chikwanda knows about SMEs have done wonders for China, japan etc.
I can’t only imagine the pain our technocrats at Ministry of Finance go through every freaking day advising this Fossil Chikwanda…I sympathise with you dearly my brothers and sisters; you are in our prayers.
The Official figures show it’s 61,000 jobs according to the CSO document on this site:
www [DOT ]scribd[ DOT ]com/doc/216081639/Jobs-in-Zambia
I think the PF are including jobs created by ZANU-PF. Normal mistake.
We are talking of temporal jobs here. Having youths hired for 6-month construction projects are not jobs we should be boasting about. Of these numbers, we ae even talking of the annual hiring of graduate teachers and nurses, which has been there before you guys came in. Tell us about job creation that’s sustainable