President Edgar Lungu has flag off the commencement of the construction of 13 milling plants in various districts across the country under the presidential milling plants initiative.
The Head of state said this is a great milestone in the actualization of the Patriotic Front government’s pro-poor policy aimed at ensuring that the lives of the majority of Zambians in the rural areas are bearable.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of milling plants at the University of Zambia Agricultural technology demonstration center in Chongwe, President Lungu said the construction works of the milling plants will be conducted in two phases and will be carried out by china machinery industry construction group incorporated.
He said under phase one of this project, three milling plants will be constructed including the one to be put up at the University of Zambia agricultural technology demonstration centre.
President Lungu said the other two have been earmarked for Monze district in southern province and Mpika district in Muchinga province.
He said government has put in place this initiative to take the production of mealie meal and stock feed to the door step of the subsistence farmer, who is the major producer of maize in the country.
President Lungu said despite the subsistence farmer’s hard work to produce the maize, it is sad to note that they accesses mealie meal and stock feed at a very high price.
He said other than reducing the cost of production for Zambia’s staple food, the positioning of the milling plants in some of the rural areas will create job opportunities for the local people who will be employed to work in the plants.
President Lungu said in addition, the milling plants will offer an alternative ready market for the maize which is produced in the respective areas and will resolve the challenge of people looking far and wide for a market for their products.
He said transport costs will ultimately reduce making mealie meal and other maize products affordable to the communities within the vicinity of milling plants.
President Lungu said the milling plant to be constructed in Chongwe will also be a training facility for human resource who will be working in milling plants in the country and will result in increased efficiency of personnel working in the milling industry across the country.
He said the three plants to be constructed in the first phase will have a combined maximum production capacity of 520 tones per day translating into 10,400 by 25 kilogramme bags of mealie meal per day and will also take approximately 21 months to become operational.
President Lungu said out of the 13 milling plants which will be constructed under the presidential milling plant initiative, six will be managed by the Zambia National Service.
He said the 13 milling plants whose construction he launched today will be located in Kaoma-western province, Monze and Mazabuka-southern province, Chipata-eastern province, Mpika-Muchinga province, and Solwezi-north western province.
President Lungu said other plants will be situated in Mumbwa and Kapiri Mposhi-central province, Luanshya and Kalulushi-copperbelt province, Mansa-luapula province, Chongwe-lusaka province and Kasama in Northern Province.
(HH) is screwed for 2021. Watch!
What are you going to grind in these milling plants? Sand…these are just new contracts for kickbacks and overpriced projects. People are going unpaid for months yet some people have money for pointless projects
No need to open 13 more … the priority should be making sure everyone is paid on time then they would have the cash to purchase whatever these mills produce.
Without the purchasing power how are the hammer mills going to be profitable??? We can’t run a business without cash flow otherwise we get into trouble.
BoZ needs to look at our own Quantitative Easying using local means because it always works as long as the interest rates remain low to curb for inflation.
Epo mpelele,
BRM
Quantitative Easying
Yes, Quantitative Easying … it works in the European Union, Russia, China and the United States.
Make it happen here at home.
Epo mpelele,
BRM
Why dont you just say printing monopoly money into circulation JUNIOR? Dont use colourful words to confuse the masses
The question is how much is located to the corrupt scheme called presidential initiative fund….this fund is not audited: there is no public tender ….I mean this corrupt man just bought 2000 solar powered hammer mills from China…what the point of these milling plants!!
Just wondered too. Anyone have an idea how the not-enough-capacity 2000 solar milling plants are performing as mealie meal prices are not stabilizing!
This is not laughable anymore…I mean how much was been collected from those hammer mills last year as they are not grinding maize for free….
Another failed project for alungu anabwela,where are solar milling plant you boosted of
Ok then Mr empty dry Skull!!!!
Ministries dont have money but Mr Kasaka Ka dalama has bottomless pit of it
Those milling plants will become white elephants if you don’t give farmers enough incentives to produce good amounts of maize.
They offered a ridiculously low priceK65 for a 50kg bag of maize,they have failed to pay farmers who supplied maize their money,todate farmers are yet to receive inputs for this year,they exported the maize they bought at K65,contracts were only offered to their cadres,right now they are selling the same maize they bought at K65 at K110 whilst the farmers remain unpaid and the man has the audacity to even talk about agriculture. How can someone honestly fail in everything?
Farmers are not paid and they dont have inputs, where does this dander head think he will get maize from, this dullness in PFoools is like a disease, is their IQ that low or they are just plain useless…. Really can’t understand these dander heads
Good if it keeps Trib.al in limbo till 2199. To be ruled by a trib.al? No way!
Now tell us how the solar milling plants are doing, any good results? Hopefully not like the Higer bus project for call boys!
what about those stupid useless hammer mills they bought, PFOOOLS.
By the way, any success with the trib.al protests proposed by Trib.al Hacks? Has Kanganja allowed the stupid senseless protests? Or more likely no response from people. Try trib.al homeland maybe, but even there they are fed up, and also busy with the effects of the drought.
Politicians don’t add any values to our lives at the end of the day.
They are just greedy punks who think of buying votes from poor citizens for their own benefit
Sontapo
LOOK PIPO DONT FORGET EASILY ZAMBIA GOT A LOAN US$200MILLION FOR 2000 HAMMER MILLS NOT OUR CARING PRESIDENT THROUGH HAMMER PRESEIDENTIAL INITIATIVE HAS DONATED 13 MILLING PLANTS EACH PROVINCE 1 WHILST IN NORTHERN AND LUSAKA HAVE THE BALANCE, ONE MILLING PLANT IS us$20million , thanks ur EXCELLENCY CONTINUE YOUR HARDWORK AND GENEROSITY, JUST KA OPERATION TIME IS TOO LONG , PLEASE SUB CONTRACT A ZAMBIAN COMPANY AFTER ALL ITS JUST INSTALLATION WHY CHINA MAN AGAIN WE HAVE A LOT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS JUST LOAFING
Donated with taxpayers money to taxpayers from an unaudited account
SECOND SENTENCE WORD NUMBER FIVE SHOULD READ “NOW”
Very very sad indeed. Next time someone says he has no vision believe him and don’t take chances. You can’t fault the guy. He was very open and honest on this one. Zambians wanted someone without a vision. What hurts is that he gets the maize from farmers and distributes it to buy votes without any sense of guilty and shame while the poor farmers and transporters remain unpaid for their produce and services.
Shame
While we are on this topic, how are the solar milling pants doing?
You will appreciate ECL and PF when they are long gone, most of the bloggers have big mouth of insults with no solutions to mother Zambia.
We are not brainless like you mune. The only person most of us appreciate is Rupiah. If you m0r0ns had not voted him out we would not be in this mess. Ati appreciate ECL for what? Kwati tulifipuba? This is the worst president in the history of not only this country but in the whole of SADC, that takes not having a vision to achieve such an accolade.
There is no information in the article on the cost of these plants and how they are being financed. We need some progress report on the ZCF solar milling plants in terms of how many have been installed, performance so far in terms of production and who is financing them. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ON THE CONTINUED APETITE FOR BORROWING which we now understand is part of investment for the future
learn to give praise where it is due,this is a presidential initiative…why mix issues here?
Lungu is after stealing and no one is going to stop him. Milling plants have never been a problem in Zambia and they won’t help in bringing the price of Millie mill down. Because the problem is not milling plants but agriculture policies combined with Millie mill marketing and inputs distribution. All what Kind is doing is to cause the people to believe he is doing something while he is doing nothing to solve the problem. Why doesn’t pay the farmers instead. He is bankrupting farmers at the hands of the chinese. He is spending money to pay the Chinese for the milling plants we don’t need. You need to know that those milling plants he is buying from China are at least 3 times more than they cost. 2 times the cost mill go into Lungu’s back pocket for buying things the country doesn’t…
Tell us the cost , you corrupt debarred theiving lawyer ????
The lack of consultation by the PF has caused so much wastage of the meagre resources. Most solar milling plants dotted across the country are now white elephants