The cost of living for a family of five in Lusaka has declined by K29, from K5, 424 in December 2018 to K5, 395 in January 2019, the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has revealed.
According to the JCTR latest Basic Needs Basket, the K29 decline will have little impact on the lives of people because the cost of Basic Needs Basket for January remained high.
The JCTR disclosed in their report that the country has continued to experience high unemployment and poverty levels of 41.2 percent and 54 percent respectively, coupled with inequality, corruption and other socio-economic challenges.
According to the report, Basic Needs Basket also shows that the most significant changes were noted in the sale of tea bags which decreased by K12, from K85 to K73 while charcoal reduced by K5 from K138 to K133 per K50 kg bag.
The report indicates that the prices for commodities such as vegetables dropped due to seasonal factors, adding that the price for fish and Kapenta increased by K28 from K103 to K131 per kilogram and Kapenta increased by K14 from K198 to K202.
The basic needs baskets also shows that housing in Lusaka’s high density areas remained high at K3,000 per month for a 3 bedroomed house, ZESCO bills amounted to K292 for 402 kilowatts per hour, and water bills were calculated at K192 per month.
The BNBV illustrates that living in Lusaka remains expensive and challenging for average Zambians noting that living in Lusaka limits opportunities for development and slows the growth of human dignity.
The report observes that if the status quo is maintained, the country will continue to languish in high poverty levels which might be difficult to recover from adding that the impact would be felt by Zambians surviving on the social and economic margins.
The JCTR has urged that job creation should be initiated by both the public and private sectors to address the high unemployment and promote wage for people to help meet the high cost of living across the country.
This is in recognition that government must act on the common good and demonstrate a preferential option of the poor.
The JCTR has further urged government to fully embrace and expand the e-voucher programme in order to promote agriculture diversification from maize growing to livestock and fish farming.
The JCTR has also stressed that urban farming should also be encourage so that households are able to exercise increased self-sufficiency and supplement some basic needs.
Figures dont lie.
ECL!
What kind of fish costs K103 per Kg? I buy mine at K29 per Kg…
This data doesnt make sense at all
The problem we have in Zambia is trying to live or lead a lifestyle beyond your means period. In fact, if we were to be brutally honest with ourselves, stop this blame game and do some work for once, you will realize that this so called “poverty” especially advanced by opposition and NGOs is fake. These groupings survive on handouts from donors and so they always create some urgency in anything and use terms like Human Rights, abject poverty, unemployment rate, child abuse, early marriages, political crises, corruption etc just to try and convince the unsuspecting donors.
I challenge most opposition parties to tell the nation when they last got audited and what are the findings. This applies to most NGOs! What these groups dont realise is that in the social media age today, people are…
contd
I challenge most opposition parties to tell the nation when they last got audited and what are the findings. This applies to most NGOs! What these groups dont realise is that in the social media age today, people are well informed and they can aptly differentiate truth from lies. People can see beyond “being a good man” for the sake of winning their vote. For instance its rain season now, how many opposition parties encouraged the Zambians to take advantage of the rains, invest their time in farming now and invest the effects for future use? Absolutely non. Yet they keep cheating people that their is hunger from where? If you are lazy, sleeps all day, expect nothing from nobody, period. Nobody, and nobody in this world will bring nshima, paulp, Saza, ugali or whatever you call it…
contd
Nobody, and nobody in this world will bring nshima, paulp, Saza, ugali or whatever you call it on your table, its your responsibility, you got to work for it, be active. Wasting your time on the phone gossiping will do nothing but just make you extremely worse, negative and FRUSTRATED and nobody will care believe me. So stop the blame game, and start being real, open minded, stop clouding your minds with ideas of frustrated, tired, retired, ruined, rejected politicians and individuals. Opportunities dont come to you, seize them!
I am proposing a regional bread basket for SADC instead of listening to the lonesome voice of Zambians. Try converting to USD by official rate and parallel rate.
Malinso you should be ashamed of yourself. We need to audit the government more than private entities who are doing a lot to help the grassroots access essentials like education, healthcare and employment. The opposition is not an enemy as you view it unless you want to be a dictator. See them as colleagues and partners in development. Mind you when the economy collapses the whole world is going to demand that you go
Reading Malinso makes a bad ending to my day. If a few Zambians are reasoning like him then we are in a very deep trouble. The 5 300 suggested by the JCTR is less than 500 US Dollars and very few civil servants are earning that.
Do we really need to look to NGOs or opposition as being malicious or we should look to improving our nation by looking at how we are governing?
Having a first lady and president spend at will and Malinso defending that is making Zambia remain a third world country permanently. We can do better than this.
Comment:the economy is bad but some price there they are wrong,and the key to poverty reduction is through job creation and empowerments,????????????????????????????????
Where in Zambia do you find kapenta at K200 plus?Is this really true?