EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen has announced the resumption of budget support for Zambia and launched three programmes worth €110 million under EU Global Gateway.
The announcement was made alongside President Hakainde Hichilema and Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane.
The three programmes focus on improving Zambia’s education and health systems, increasing green energy and enhancing food security.
Commissioner Urpilainen and Dr. Musokotwane also announced the intention of the EU and Zambia to launch negotiations for a Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic partnership on sustainable critical raw materials value chains.
Commissioner Urpilainen is accompanied in this visit by four members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development: Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, György Hölvényi, Udo Bullmann and Carlos Zorrinho.
It is the first joint Team Europe mission of this kind.
The three EU programmes worth €110 million focus on:
Health and Education: The EU’s new €60 million budget support allocation to Zambia comes on top of the initial €299 million cooperation budget in Multiannual Indicative Programming (2021-2024). The new grant marks the resumption of budget support for Zambia, and it will be used to improve education and health sectors in particular. It will enhance access to inclusive and quality education on primary and secondary levels. It will help Zambia address barriers to public health and boost the pharmaceutical sector development.
Green Energy: the EU will make an additional investment of €30 million in the rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam, a key infrastructure providing clean energy to both Zambia and Zimbabwe. It represents one third of Zambia’s and half of Zimbabwe’s power generation capacity. Previously, the EU has made a €83.5 million financial commitment for the Kariba Dam rehabilitation project. Today’s new allocation will help finance the cost of additional works that were identified during the first phase of the project. The project is expected to conclude next year.
Food Security: The EU is contributing an additional €20 million to support smallholder farmers in Zambia. This support is part of the EU’s response to the food security crisis and economic shock aggravated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. New funding complements the €12.4 million already mobilised to assists 60,000 small-scale farmers in increasing small farmers’ productivity and support to women working in the sector.
“We are living in an increasingly complex geopolitical context. Amidst turmoil, the EU greatly appreciates the values-based cooperation we have with Zambia at regional, continental and multilateral levels. Our appreciation for Zambia is demonstrated by this joint visit of two EU institutions and the new financial commitments, which we announced today. The programmes we launched are examples of Global Gateway investment strategy in action. We invest in education, health, food security and green energy, and these investments will benefit Zambian people directly,” says Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships
I was wondering why this village c00n had no gloves on, until I saw the whlte person.
I love watching you gnash your teeth with bitterness. Hope you’ll be able to keep this up till 2031 when HH ends his second term. Probably before then Zambians will even demand for a referendum to change the constitution so that he runs for an extra two terms hahaha!
This is certainly showing your Pf up
The chaps had this grant suspended because of being thieves and now they are in the forefront making noise and attacking HH because of his lobbying. Clowns!
The presidential lobbying paying off………………..
Credit must be given were it is due and it is due indeed…this is a good result
Atase! What a useless bunch of !d!0ts we have!!! You are even taking pics for such small monies whilst they extract billions from your natural resources. A decent SME generates that sort of revenue within 6 months and there you are parading yourselves like the western world 8utt kissers you have reduced Zambia to.
you’re an !diot. Plain and simple.
We have some thankless *****s making useless comments. Which decent SME in Zambia generates this sort of money and supports education, health and green economy in Zambia?? The government has mandate to enter into partnership for development with the EU. Do you know for how long EU has been supporting Zambia?
I have never seen anyone who smiles the greatest around white people. This guy will sale everything including us as slaves. You have enormous natural resources. You choose to give tax holidays and go begging as opposed to extracting your God given resources. These bread crumbs they are giving us will just make as forever dependent.
Bane, when are you going to grow up? These grants were suspended because of PF theft and now have been reinstated and will boost the sectors they are directed to and all you can think about is his smile? Ulishilu?
Ati use zambias God given resources…..??
Little do they know that the known resources have been mortgaged already…….
Renationalising taught you a lesson with KCM…….No one will touch it.
Little do they know exploration and development takes time and costs upwards of 300 million.
Little do they know , the cash choke is now, zambia needs relief from debt now.
Efforts are being rewarded
Lets wait for the Kwacha to appreciate after this. For one week
When there is no evidence of any decent SMEs in Zambia raising that sort of revenue and providing support to improve the education, health and green energy of Zambia, the decent response should be to appreciate the support EU has provided to Zambia in these sectors. The day light jealous against efforts of a government in obtaining EU support is gutter politics. The EU has been supporting development in Zambia for many years. Why should we now have some people commenting negatively when EU provides needed support to improve education, health and green energy sectors?? My comments may not be shared by Lusaka Times which frustrates!!
Fipuba all those who are condemning this. Just bitter PF chaps still crying over the loss of their livelihood and now they have to watch properties belonging to Lungu and his family being forefeited to the state so we can understand their pain.