Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe to issue a statement on the performance of the Zambian Economy

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Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe
Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe

The Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe will today issue a statement on the performance of the economy in 2017. According to statement released to the media yesterday by Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Chileshe Kandeta, Mrs Mwanakatwe will also provide the outlook for 2018, which will be her Ministry’s focus going forward.

Yesterday, Mrs. Mwanakatwe held her first strategic visioning meeting with top management in the Ministry of Finance.

During the meeting, the Minister commended the team for ensuring that economic stability was attained. She reiterated the consensus of Cabinet to improve domestic resource mobilisation.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe asked her top management team to ensure that the actions and performance of the Ministry of Finance met people’s expectations.

Those in attendance at the meeting were Secretary to the Treasury FREDSON YAMBA, Permanent Secretary for Economic Management and Finance MUKULI CHIKUBA, Permanent Secretary for Budget and Economic Affairs Dr. EMMANUEL MULENGA PAMU, Accountant General Dr. DICK CHELLAH SICHEMBE, and Controller of Internal Audit JOYCE SUNDANO. Others in attendance were Treasury Counsel KAWAMA GOMA-SIMUMBA, and Director [HRA] JOYCE NYAMA.

“We have an economy to run, we have an economy to protect, we have an economy to grow,” she said, adding that “we have to intensify our domestic resource mobilisation while at the same time developing sustainable plans for concessional, cost-effective, and value for money external resource mobilisation.”

The Minister requested her team to formulate a plan for offsetting domestic arrears in a systematic manner in order to help dismantle the K9 billion domestic debt. She also directed the team to develop a sustainable plan for timely payment of salaries to public service workers.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe reiterated governments concern with the perception of corruption in some public offices and urged her team to ensure that the Ministry of Finance “demonstrated and practiced transparency and accountability in the discharge of treasury and economic management functions” in order to augment the public confidence in the trustworthiness of the Ministry to mobilise, manage, and keep custody of public resources “without raising credibility and governance red-lights.”

“This Ministry is key and must play its role in assuring the public that the perception of corruption which has been appended to some public offices will be addressed,” she said.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe called for hard work at all levels of the Ministry to ensure that the country reaches Growth Domestic Product [GDP] in excess of 5% and so that “in the near future” the benefits of growth begin to trickle down to the citizenry.

Speaking during the same meeting, SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY FREDSON YAMBA disclosed that the Ministry of Finance was formulating a plan to deal with the obligations that the country will have to fulfill as the Eurobonds fall due. Mr. Yamba assured the Minister that plans were also underway to dismantle domestic arrears and timely pay public service workers.

48 COMMENTS

  1. We know that the economy has been on the down syndrome but bolstered by Chinese loans.
    These new sharks are like space invaders. Remember the Atari game?
    The more you play the more you are attacked. That way you waste time and money.
    Zambia will not grow out of this pit!

    • The problem is not only corruption but misallocation of State funds. A govt that buys Luxury SUVs but fails to buy dustbins, fix drainages, doesn’t stock hospitals adequately with medicines but begs donors for assistance and has schools without text books for kids is not going to succeed, we expect you ba Minister to change this or else you too will be condemned.

    • Proclamations, statements, threats, warnings, announcements won’t change a thing. Root cause of our problems is:-

      1. A CORRRRRUPT, thief of a president & his PF minions are overpricing tenders e.g. 42×42 Wheel-burrows, ambulances.
      2. Over-borrowing especially from Chinese for white elephant projects & from expensive windows like Euro-bond & failed IMF loan
      3. A bloated Civil Service. 60% of Zambia’s locally generated revenue goes to renumeration of Civil Servants
      4. Copper goes out but the money does NOT come back.

    • We dont want statements!! who is going to eat a statement?? we want results we can feel. Tell us that fuel prices have been reduced, farmers are paid on time and maize prices have gone down. something we can feel.

    • Address the challenges that you faced in your attempts to pay back the loan. Pay back the money you owe. Stop wasting time making empty statements. Just pay back the funny

    • Useless, which Economy to run you thief?? It’s embarrassing to see how Zambia is being run by such useless people. They have no heart for the country. Let God Punish them in their endeavors.

  2. Maggy look no further than state house if you want to catch and uproot the corrupt from government, the prime suspects are operating from state house.

    • Dudu, don’t allow yourself to be used as the scapegoat for all their failures and corrupt deeds after all the damage they have done through crass corruption and pillaging of resources. We hope you will be able to stand your ground against insatiable appetite of the appointing authority to spend, spend, spend!! If you can’t then you will have failed before you even start!!

    • They are actually operating with impunity. KALABA knows them and he was really sick of them. That came out clearly in his interview during prime TV session. LUNGU is a thief who stole from a client and he should have never been allowed anywhere near the STATE HOUSE building, let alone to be President Koswe.

  3. You’ve only been there 2 days. What performance statement are you going to issue that you have come up with in 48 hours that will be different from your predecessors? You should have said that you are keenly looking into the books and issue a statement as soon as you get all the facts together. No need to issue a statement that will be hollow in nature just for the sake of issuing one.

  4. The statement is a smokescreen to show she’s equal to the task when not. Why didn’t she show the same vigour in other portfolio? She thinks the new ministry will perform itself through such visibility statements. Priority number 1: open UNZA and CBU!!!

  5. Premature statement by an ill-equipped official .Bwana Magande woulda been better suited to this portfolio cuz surely even the best EPL managers or biggest fortune 500 megacorporations CEO take time to turnaround their entities.

    • Magande may be a very good finance man, but can he accept to serve in the government run by his tribal enemies? It used to work before one HH came on the scene. In any case let’s give a chance to the lady instead of prejudging her.

    • Ndanje Khakis
      You are only as good as the people you work with especially your superiors.Everyone from the IMF to local experts have spoken on the need to reduce expenditure,but have you seen the president’s position,he told us that those who are advocating for reduced expenditure can go to hell[his words not mine]and todate we take it that is official government position.Just over the weekend he took his theatrics to another level and told the whole world that it is ok for Him and Kabila to continue in power even in breach of their respective national constitutions,he obviously has no idea the effects of such irresponsible statements.
      In short not even Magande can rescue the situation,unfortunately from what i see only a new leadership a more responsible leadership can rescue the…

  6. We needed a full change of all those at Finance ,including the so called PRO , all liers they just eat with who ever comes . Also the proposed statement is too early , we needed something from herself , not written by these criminals .

  7. PF has a sad legacy cuz they came on board when the economy was expanding at 6% rate .Now on their entire watch the economy has been comatose at 3% -a poor rate that increases poverty.

    Make Zambia great again, bring back our 6.4% growth rate.

    • Mzambia wa Zamani
      With these guys even their statistics should be taken with cautiion.Right now their inflation rate is 5% or there about but interest rates are above 40%,though off course they have their BOZ rates which hover around !2%.So for all we know we may be having the economy contracting but in their special way it is growing.

  8. ‘Minister of Commerce Margaret Mwanakatwe has defaulted on CEEC loan’- Tayali,2015
    Why are Zambians so forgetful? This case was never resolved and yet the culprit is not MoF!

  9. Welcome to the engine room. The vigour you have shown in takling the challenges of your new job is admirable. But just understand that any fiscal measures that will burden the citizenry further without stopping the existing wanton wastage are not welcome.

  10. @Max do you mean maize prices or mealie meal prices? Are you a miller? Why do you want maize prices to go down? If maize prices go down farmers who are the majority in rural areas will suffer! We expect prices for maize to go up to help farmers support their families and so that they can be encouraged to continue producing. Millers who already make abnormal profits are the ones who should reduce the price of mealie meal. Failure to do this I believe consumers should be encouraged to stop buying from millers and just buy maize directly from farmers then gaya it themselves.

    • Dr Habazoka in 2014 stated that the price of mealie meal in Zambia was too low and as we’re feeding neighboring countries through smuggling. As for the low price of maize Mr Max must take into account how much government is subsidizing inputs. .e.g. bags of fertilizer, seed which costs more than k1,600 are given free to the farmer so the government expects to buy the product at a reduced price. Secondly the market is not restricted to government as some of us have been selling directly to millers at prices ranging between 65 to 70 kwacha. One buyer even comes to the place of your storage so you save on transport.

  11. I would like to appeal to the newly appointed minister Honourable Mwanakatwe to help and empower Engineering in zambia for us to develop.All those countries who have developed have put engineering first. In this country there are massive projects which have undertaken by students in universities particulary copperbelt university but are being kept idol or in store rooms. Most graduated students have nothing financially and seemed no system to help them exhaust their knowledge on tangible things which could highly add value and develop this country.Engineering will be a source of employment,increasing productivity of various goods,manufacturing , increase tax revenues and reduce poverty in our country.The Govenment and the EIZ should work together and identify engineering skills and…

    • A good example of ignoring Zambian professionals is the RSTA partnership with the Austrians and the Lebanese of lamise to manage the traffic system in zambia……a more forward looking GRZ should have tasked the universities and bussiness leaders in Zambia instead of the Lebanese to be the 3rd party…..the engineering departments of CBU and UNZA should have benefited from this collaboration while Zambian bussiness leaders like Lawrence sikutwa should have headed a consortium to oversee the bussiness side of things , instead lungu corruptly brings in lamise ? Tell me what do lamise bring apart from bribes ???

  12. Khakis very good point , but instead of pipo taking noticeyou should have put your pf government as they are, as you keep telling us all, the drivers of development. So by correlation when the developmemt and flow effect doesnt happen then the pf government us responsible. QED

  13. This is where PF media is failing their party…..that chanda they have is only there to defend against allegations of corruption it seems and does nothing to try to install confidence of the nation in pf…..their media team should have highlighted the archivments of Mrs mwanakatwe at her previous ministry…or maybe there are no archivments to showcase ????

  14. Zambia’s debt-GDP ratio is exceptionally high, just what plans is this Yamba magician going to conjure to ensure that we remain afloat as the Eurobonds repayments fall due? The factors that are in full control of Zambia’s economy at the moment include shock to the productive capacity as a result of economic or non-economic factors, namely run away corruption,.disastrous economic management by the government, misplaced investment strategies i.e. where the returns of investments are by far lower than the cost of foreign capital, unsustainable growth strategies, and speculation and capital flight. These factors have directly disrupted production, decreased export revenues, and ultimately wipe out the repayment potential of these stupid. Euro Bonds Sata contracted to build foolish…

  15. Corruption is the key to self actualization. What can u do without corruption? U are were u are because u not corrupt. If you want to change yourself, try corruption. Corruption pays my friend. Get real!

  16. It is clear that she has been brought in to ease the looting. Mutati had no interest releasing money for cadres because he is not a member of the PF. Zambia is headed for a shock and Mwanakatwe will be in trouble for it. Wait! Why is she being appointed when her election was nullified by the Court?

  17. What happened to this woman’s court case where her parliamentary seat was in question and the judge ruled against her? Is she supposed to be an MP?

  18. For a change, why not take a fact-finding tour of such countries like Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and see how those countries’ leadership have managed to fight corruption, reduce government spending and expenditure and so forth? Do our ministers really need those expensive ministerial vehicles and a bloated civil service to run the nation? What about that CEEC issue she had, has it been resolved? Nullification of her seat-still awaiting court ruling and she is praying it is in her favour! So many skeletons but yet she even occupies that financial slot in government circles!

  19. From the comments in the modern day LT, no wonder Zambia lags behind. Which opposition in Zambia even has intelligence anymore?

  20. Upnd is a big danger to this country democratic credentials. One wonders why they didn’t learn leadership from the late MC Data when they worked with him in the failed petition.

  21. This lady is bright and intelligent! I think she is too intelligent than the average UPND supporters and online stone throwers!

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