A Copperbelt University Lecturer says the country’s economic challenges can only be resolved by understanding what has caused the current economic crisis in the country..
Lubinda Habazoka who is the head of the economics department at CBU said there has been a number of inconstancies in the governance of the country which has contributed to the downfall of the country’s economy.
Mr Habazoka has since called for an anti economic crisis committee to be established so as to help deal with the economic crisis the country is going through.
Below is a statement issued to the media by Mr Habazoka.
It is quiet evident that the economic crisis in Zambia that has been building up in the past few years has reached a level where we need a national anti economic crisis committee. Effective commercial lending rates have reached 40% from 13% in 2012, inflation is at 22.5% from 6.4% in 2012, government foreign debt stock has increased from $1.2bn in 2011 to over $10bn in 2016.
The country has also experienced massive electricity load load shedding despite government investing over a billion dollars in the last four years in the sector.
The country is currently experiencing fuel and mealie shortages a trend common only in the 1980s. Zambia has also seen its currency loosing value by 300% in the last 5 years. Where in 2011 1USD = ZMW4.8 now 2016 a Dollar is fetching ZMW11.4.
Zambia has also seen a huge budget deficit that has led to delays in salary payments for government workers especially in quasi government institutions. For the first time after independence, government has decided a scrap off meal allowances for university students a serious blow to the country’s aim of fighting illiteracy.
The major consequences of the mentioned challenges in Zambia is the eradication of the important middle class which will lead to increased poverty. Energy problems will also shrink Zambia’s economy as companies will be unable to produce goods because of the high cost of doing business.
The recent eviction of stores in Zambia’s levy junction shopping mall is a clear testimony that citizens no longer have money because the evicted stores depend on shoppers for income. In order for us to find solutions to the many challenges we are facing, there is need for us to know the major causes of these problems and these are:
I. Global commodity prices
II. Careless government borrowing
III. Inconsistent Government economic polices like the mine tax regime, lending rate caps, ever changing import and export procedures etc,
IV. Corruption in government tendering system
V. Poor management because of infusing carders in sensitive jobs. Poor management is the greatest factor because it is unacceptable to put carders from permanent secretary going down as these have no regard for the system because of the influence they may have in the ruling party. There is need to appoint people based on their ability to perform. Nepotism is also rampant therefore Zambia is unable to use all the talent it has to develop the country.
VI. Misplaced infrastructure development. Infrastructure development in less priority areas can never develop the country. If that development was in form of roads to farm areas, electrification of farm areas, drilling Bole holes at each farm in Zambia, we would have seen Zambia even surpass South Africa in terms of agriculture sector development. But what did we see, township roads to woe votes and doing of roads like Kitwe Ndola that could have waited.
Happy Easter
By Dr. Lubinda Habazoka
Copperbelt University Head of Economics.
It is a pity, they say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, what more teaching a drunk that doesn’t even remember what being sober feels like?
Vote wisely on 11/8/2016!! Vote Zambia forward!! Vote UPND!!
#chagwamustfall!!
I thank you!!
I wholeheartedly support this all. Ba Chikwanda nabakota…he needs help.
A committee for what don? Then what is the role of the government? This the only country where people in government fail to manage a crisis and they are never made to resign! They are accountable to nobody. What we need are risk managers in government positions a situation which demands far more that a grade 12 certificate
True this!
If anyone recalls, Kalima Nkonde had suggested this, 2 citizens so far have suggested for such measures to be taken but it all falls on deaf ears, and this is the so-called “listening government”
Dr. Lubinda, I hope Kaingu doesn’t identify as a trouble maker for giving out solutions to the country’s economy.
Committee TO GET MORE MONEY from GRZ. Good thinking Ba Dr. In Zambia, like anywhere else, you may not get patriotic people who would work for the benefit of GRZ. Otherwise, Kulyamo bonse.
we have EAZ Mr Habazoka
This Doc (not the other one without a G12) is correct. Levy’s success was more because he created & consulted more of these formal & informal think tanks. We have a lot of brilliant people who can help govt devise methods to move the country forward but they need a selfless leader who will honestly confer with them.
TRUE I THINK IT IS EVEN BETTER TO WISH THAT CHRIST CAME BEFORE EASTER TO FETCH US HOME .ZAMBIA IS NO LONGER A SAFE COUNTRY .ESPECIALLY DAVIES CHAMA MUMBI PHRI,KAMBWILI AND FATHER FRANK BWALYA.THERE TALK AND STORIES ON A DAILY BASIS IS TRIBAL THIS TRIBAL THAT ,HH THIS HH THAT .WHY CANT THE PF JUST FORCUSS TO MARKET THEMSELVES ON WHAT THEY HAVE DONE OTHER THAN THIS TRIBAL STRATEGY IT IS NOTY WORKING OUT .I HOPE DOC WONT BE EXPELLED FOR BRINGING OUT THESE BRILLIANT IDEAS
I am waiting for Chishimba Kambwili to call this Dr a tribalist Tonga
The tribe tells it all. ECL for President
LESA twachula pa fula.Help as god by removing this drunkard and womanizer from state house.He has completely failed.Even us who were supporting him we feel embarrassed .Awe kwena Lungu na filwa fye mwe.Abash tribal sentments .Uyu wine HH let him try mwe.
Of course he is tonga and therefore an UPnD cadre, that is the first thing to note before we analyse his comments.
1. He assumes that his party will solve our problems.
2. The fact is that no matter how bad things may become now or in the near future, before or after 11 th August, the uPND is NOT a viable alternative, it is a party led by a dreamer liar beyond excellence, in fact this Habazooka is challenging HH because only HH is supposed to possess any knowledge of the economy in the whole Upnd.
3. I am amused by his statement that by withdrawing meal allowances to university students it has dealt a blow to fighting illiteracy in zambia. Really “doc”? So those students at university are illiterate you say? I thought that university is for higher learning and not literacy as in…
3. I am amused by his statement that by withdrawing meal allowances to university students it has dealt a blow to fighting illiteracy in zambia. Really “doc”? So those students at university are illiterate you say? I thought that university is for higher learning and not literacy as in basic reading and writing? But that is what it means when upnd has made academics think like red beretted UPND cadres, the whole doc cannot think properly. You can see his whole statement from this point of view, that there is no analysis in his thinking, it is just campaign time.
4. The people that he wants to be in positions of authority are himsel, but from this statement we can tell that he is as bad as the people that he alleges are cadres in senior government positions. And many of them are similar…
4. The people that he wants to be in positions of authority are himsel, but from this statement we can tell that he is as bad as the people that he alleges are cadres in senior government positions. And many of them are similar to the doc.
5. Up to now he has failed to understand the causes of load shedding, either he is a dull academic or he it’s typical cadre mentality and empty campaign messages for UPnd.
6. They are now coming out of the woods, overconfident as usual and mistakenly thinking that they have already won the elections….
wise head you have advanced some valid points but you have spoiled your post with tribal overtones. Some of us who neither belong to the north nor south want healthy debates void of tribal talk. I hope you don’t label me as well.
thanks man.
We have enough think tanks iwe dokota. All u want is allowances malabishi. Whats the use of ZIPAR, EAZ etc?? Ahhh his name reveals something. This dokota must be a tonga and therefore a unpd cadre looking at his name. This tribe awe mwe they have introduced a bad spirit of complaining in Zambia. They complain over everything. Am fed up with them no wonder their product hh is unsalable- no market to Zambians
@Chilema ni webo
Ati unsaleable? Look again at all the saleable guys who have been president in Zambia; I am assuming by saleable you mean a charismatic leader able to hold an audience spell-bound by his speeches. KK, Chiluba and the late thug Sata were fantastic charismatic leaders but look again at their myopic performance in office. Compare that with Mwanawasa who by any rate was Zambia’s best president and he wasn’t even saleable (charismatic). You need a serious no nonsense guy in that office who really knows what needs to be done to get things moving in Zambia again, not jokers, court jesters, charlatans, or alcoholics.
Steve, thanks for that. Not every tonga is tribal but that academic is speaking from that standpoint, and the statement was probably sponsored by the Post cartel. But I take your point, thanks again.
Not every tonga is tribal but every three critics out of four are likely to be tonga, unfortunately.
You are just styopid man. Even a dog can easily identify you as such by just looking at your head. Noko chinyio.
These are some of the stupid lecturers Zambia, CBU don’t need!!! Ubutole too much!!!
Reminds me of the ’95s when 1 ZimDollar was worth about 100 Zambia Kwacha, and people there thought it had lost much, and started calling it ZimKwacha. The rest is History. What am trying to say is, when an economy starts going down, it runs the risk of nose-diving.