Dr Mbita Chitala has advised the financial and fiscal management at the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Zambia to resign so that the kwacha can be saved from the free fall depreciation.
Dr Chitala who is former finance deputy minister in the MMD administration and also Zambia Research Foundation Executive Director said the kwacha was losing value due to poor economic management that led to the introduction of SI 33 and SI 55 and their subsequent revocation.
He said investors that were removing their moneys from the local economy had lost trust in the current leadership managing the country’s financial control.
The Kwacha has continued to depreciate hitting K6.61 and K6.63, buying and selling against the dollar respectively as of yesterday.
The local currency has been rated Africa’s worst performing currency and second in the world after Ukraine.
From trading about US$1 to K3800 in 2011 as President Michael Sata was taking over power, the kwacha has weakened in drastic fashion and may soon hit the K7 (7000) against US$1 rate.
“The major problem we are facing is that of confidence in the economy and our managers. After the revocation of Statutory Instruments Number 33 and 55, the same managers are managing the economy.
Ordinarily, it was going to be good for those managers to either resign on their own, or be shifted to other institutions so that new people come in,” Dr Chitala said.He said most investors had shifted their assets from Zambia.
“Those people who brought in SI 33 and 55 which led people to shift their assets from Zambia to foreign accounts have not yet returned their money as they are not yet convinced that these managers who had hurt them so much have now become better and consistent managers namely the people at the ministry of Finance and the Bank of Zambia,” Dr Chitala said.He insisted that the best the government could do was to shift the financial managers to other government institutions and appoint new people in those areas so that confidence could be restored.
At last derrick is seeing that the ship has sunk our economy. What is wrong with our economists? All this time he never foresaw this and yet us non economists saw it coming.
dont just fire them jail them ku chimbwakaila
I agree! What Sata and his useless IDI0Ts promised was to “put more money in our pockets” in 90 days.
What we have got is no more money in our pockets, and the money we did have is now only worth half of what it was then!
Fire them and JAIL them. They LIED to Zambia and have criminally failed ever since coming to power.
They are conmen. JAIL THEM!
Dr. Chitala, I could not agree with you more. In fact we should call for the resignation of the entire Government. They are really living up to Mr. Sata’s assertions of them. Totally Useless!
fire them and jail them!!
If the Kwacha gains to two to a dollar, where is GRZ going to find money to pay huge wages and implement all the developmental programmes which they have put in place?
With the Kwacha at 7, government is able to meet all its obligations. The only looser is the worker who wants to buy a tipper truck which previously going at
90 000.
The ZK will surely appreciate when PF has completed its projects somewhere around 2016. At the moment they need a lot of Kwacha from the few dollars they are meking from earnings
Sata promised to lower the exchange rate in 90 days. lol. which campaign promise will PF Keep? Fyonse niboza, bufi, koma eh
I like Derrick. He speaks out when it seems to make sense.
Thumbs up. These guys they r frustrating Zambians.
Wow!!! PF actually has economic advisers?
I hope we are learning a lesson and learning good, that you can not entrust all the important industries in the hands of foreigners and expect your economy to be stable. They will keep all the money in offshore accounts and you remain wondering why you are poor in the midst of plenty. (My people perish for the lack of knowledge- Hosea 4:6)
Derrick voted for these guys so what has he seen now what he didn’t see then despite our warning him? Let him go lie down with Mike Mulongoti sha
Well , I will be suprised if PF had any economic advisors. It is hard to imagine that People like Kabimba and and Sata himself would take advise from anybody. PF is an emperor clothes structure where only what the president says goes and nobody dare say or challenge the president’s judgment. That is why he is on record for calling his ministers useless. I think the kwacha blame is on the man in Plot 1. He is not letiing whoever advises him do a profession job. Yes, shame if they can’t even resign for disagreeing with the President. At least GBM has shown some professionalism and right now he is a hunted animal for that and a lot fear that.
advisors such as the daniel munkombwe of choma who admires whatever kabimba and sata says and you think things are ok kick them out of power come 2016 viva hh viva upnd
Chacine mwalanda ba Chitala
What about the CEO himself?
The Kwacha rebased will continue to fall until Mr Sata learns the difference between speaking as Head of State and speaking as President. Mr Sata continues to give orders to his ministers off the cuff whenever he is front of cameras. This looks as though there is really NO PLAN at Cabinet meetings, and he only wakes up to ad hoc directives when he is on camera.
What we should be hearing is something like, ‘Today I have directed so and so to do this.’ But what we hear is, ‘Minister, why is this like this? You should do this and that…’ It is as though he is in the opposition!
Zanbia an economically failed dtate. While other states fail due to war in Zambia its failing economically how can it be compared with ukrain sure. It means the mininster of finance, boz chaiir etc are incompetent
This article makes sense, Dr Chitala. I hope the Zambian electorate can learn a thing or two about their political judgment after their experience with the current administration. So many things don’t look right any more in Zambia. The PF’s main objective and area of concern seems to gravitate more towards maintaining a hold on political office than anything else. You can see it in their PF(panga fighting). They have become oblivious to the fundamentals of their duty call, which is empowering the economic structure of Zambia through a well-mandated policy utilization. They have become arrogant, with no regard for the citizens of the country. The president doesn’t even apologize after every confusion the PF party cadres cause. We are back to the party and its government. Very sad indeed.
CNP at work. Always talking louder but very brainless….
Zimbabwean dollar is number what bwana Chitala?. The world is changing. You said David Kenneth kauda was bad. Chiluba was a thief. Mwanawasa was lunatic. RB was a defiler. Sata chimbwi no plan. Proud pompous lunatics. the other reason you are failing to understand the Gods kingdom is at hand is tuma pastors notu bapatili tulebepesha kabumba ati euletutuma uku tuletulika icuma pachalo na luxury life. pwiii!!!!!!
When is the next swearing ceremony at state house so i can see the president say something?
What Zambia is going through is necessary so that those who voted for PF learn how costly it is to put ignorant people in office to run the country. For our currency, it seems, the worst is yet to come.
Hehehehehe! We want them to resign. The question is do we have them??? We dont even have them so the can’t resign…
But we have Gondwe and Chikwanda at the helm of financial management. These felas are famous for having once bled the economy to death. How does a right thinking appointing authority bring back these dead wood
The economy is breathing. The Kwacha is not manipulated by government. The curve may go up and down in an open economy. The critical issue is economic activities.
This Dr Makasa is another old fool.Where did these embeciles come from?Dont you know that there is what is called economic management.What we have now are incompetent managaers who have failed to meet the standards set by their predecessors.
Well articulated Derrick, but I would rather you kept quite, it is convenient for you to criticise because you are of the fringes. What difference did you make when you held all those positions in government , nothing.
Zambia now needs GOD more than ever, you all our leaders to date have failed US.
We should be looking at what Brazil, Chile, India and Mexico have achieved. The DOT.COM Economics is different.
EYEE! BA-DERICK. balabakomaula amapanga mumutwe. katwishi,twakulaufwako fye!
kwacha penize.
Doc,
I really appreciate your concern and the disappointment you are going through.
However do you really know the pitfalls of forex controls at the expense of efficiency. The trade off effects are very parsimonious, but with massive devastations on the same poor people you are trying to protect.Developing nations, much as you aware Doc are imported input oriented ones, and once you bring in the forex controls, this leads to inefficiency and shadow pricing of critical inputs necessary for the development of our nation. Further, often,foreign exchange controls can result in the creation of black markets to exchange the weaker currency for stronger currencies. This leads to a situation where the exchange rate for the foreign currency is much higher than the rate set by the government,…