Thursday, May 9, 2024

Govt sells one million tonnes of Mealie Meal to DRC

Share

President Hakainde Hichilema says government has negotiated a formal order of one million tonnes of mealie meal with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The President said this follows the formalisation of the trade mechanism put in place between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Me Hichilema said the Congolese government has for the first installment paid in advance through the bank 14. 5 million dollars which was deposited on Thursday July 20th , 2023.

“We are not selling maize but selling mealie meal so that we can keep the commodity ourselves, get a better price and be able to minimise on smuggling,” President Hichilema said.

The President said this in Namwala today shortly after arriving at his Naminwe Farm where he is on a working holiday.

He, however, assured Zambians that government is committed to addressing the issue of smuggling which has continued to affect mealie meal prices.

The President also called on Zambians to support the growth of the agriculture sector through irrigation farming in view of existing crop export opportunities created.

” Let’s give more value to the farmers so that they increase maize production and will provide funds to support farmers to venture into irrigation farming. With farming inputs given early this year and a fair price will increase production,” he said.

President Hichilema also said the debt restructuring has opened investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy.

He said the signing of one billion US dollars solar thermal power project investment into the energy sector with the ACSG Westland Consortium of the United Arab Emirates will enable remote rural communities connected to power supply.

He said the thermal power will invest in a 510megawatts modular thermal solar power with Shangombo District in Western Province being the first targeted community to benefit from the first 10 megawatts solar thermal power initiative.

The other 500 megawatts will be spread to other remote areas in the country to enhance Internet services.

“It is coming in modular form. It means it can be put anywhere so that the people can have e- health, e-education services in rural areas and this will spur economic development,” the President said.

He said the recent signing of trade agreements with the United Arab Emirates on various economic issues which will also see small medium enterprises, mining benefiting from a loan facility amounting to 15 million dollars.

“We add more business opportunities for young people and women. This is another envelope we are opening to give value to the people through investment.

He said the agreement will ensure that the government has 50/ 50 investment opportunities so that the people can do business fairly.

He urged Zambians to work hard and avoid laziness as it is not tolerable even by God stating that people should take advantage of the opportunities that government is creating to improve lives.

 Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa said the President is in Namwala at his Naminwe farm for a working holiday and also to enable him to reflect on national economic recovery.

Mr Mweetwa said the President needs to work out quietly especially after a hectic schedule of travelling locally and internationally negotiating debt restructuring.

UPND provincial chairperson Billiard Makwembo said the party is happy with the process that government has made since being elected into office.

He said there is light at the end of the tunnel for the country as the President has done more than what the people expected him to do in a short period of time.

“We are not complaining because they are happy with the process that government has made in a short period of time.  This is what the people wanted,” Mr Makwembo said.

52 COMMENTS

  1. Don’t speak on behalf of the people let them judge for themselves.Talk is cheap if you are working the price of commodities will drop and that’s not happening.keep your mouths shut and deliver

    14
    7
    • These people amaze me. The VP is calling for millers to reduce the price of the commodity, here her boss is boasting of exporting one million tonnes of the same.
      Power makes people to become all knowing.

      23
      3
    • You just want prices of tangible goods to drop but you forget that wages that people get paid are also a price to the employer. Are you ready to take a wage cut yourself if prices of goods and services drop so that things equalize? It’s voodoo economics to expect prices of goods and services to drop in a high inflation environment such as ours. What really happens is that if you tame inflation, wages slowly catch up with prices so that workers begin to see no rapid erosion in their buying power.

      10
      12
    • Deja Vu

      Well noted. There is too much confusion in the house. We know and it’s a fact.. that HH has no regard for his VP and even his Cabinet. If he could find a way, he could demote his VP, this afternoon or tonight. But he needs her to get some votes from the Bemba Land. HH was mining for female votes. He picked his VP to match Lungu who had picked Prof Luo from the Bemba Land. Prior, Lungu had chosen Madam Inonge Wina on the ballot. Just as well HH chose GBM as running mate {just} for election numbers, the GBM that HH had always hated so much.

      19
      5
    • Smart President, he can just ran Zambia from his farm its ok. After all his security team also enjoying camping there. Zambia is getting better and better.

      5
      13
    • All DeJa Fool knows is tribalism. See now, he is bringing in the VP, Bembas, GBM…..kaya. KZ is transitioning into that rainbow blogger.
      When we were in Opposition we did better than this…..hahaha

    • It’s apparent you have zero knowledge of economics. Go and read microeconomics of demand & supply, maybe then you may understand just a lil

      2
      2
  2. Chipante pante Government..these guys don’t know whether they’re coming or going…HH is a failed project

    7
    9
    • HH is a learned economist. Simple minds, especially those of PF cadres don’t have the ability to understand economics… they were just used to stealing so we understood

      2
      8
    • Failed project? He is a president for neo colonists. Every economic decision he takes is centered on foreigners and his inner circle owned corporate welfare, Zambians do not matter.

      3
      0
  3. VP and her boss seems to be exhibiting failure to link rhetorics to reality.
    Minus those selling on blackmarket. Are we really going to be food secured as a nation. As far as we have seen these guys make hasty decisions which have always backfired. And they do is blame PF. Last time it was maize and people suffered the consequences.

    6
    3
  4. If this one continues making such questionable decisions, he will lose next election. It will be disappointing if he loses given the amount of sacrifices some of us put in to campaign for change, let alone people like my uncle.

    13
    3
    • Tikki you have no idea what some of us sacrificed for the so called freedom you are enjoying now. You can even reply freely with nonsense to my comments becaue of the freedom I and my uncle fought for

      3
      6
    • Homosexuality is when a man deeps his p3nis into another mans a$$ that is still filled with feaces and enjoys the experience of smelling someone pooop…..

      10
      1
    • Dont talk nonsense many sacrificed many campaigned
      some of us gave thousands to assist, We did it for our Zambia, without seeking a political postion
      So what are you on about

      2
      2
    • @ TIKKI

      What did you sacrifice? To allow men to deep their p3nis into a dirty and sticking back hole. Your reasonings are so sickening. Can you describe the act of a man having anal sex to another man? Just the day, you posted that homosexuality is found in human DNA. This is a lie and you have no shame to spin this falsehood….. Just the thought that a man can get sexually aroused by looking at another man’s hole with filled faeces in it, is so sickening and absurd. I feel sorry for homosexuality in Zambian Prisons, where they don’t even have toilet tissue to wipe your hole. And just go ahead a deep your deeper in dirty hole. You are far worse than dogs.

    • You have to change your profile photo Impostor…surely is it that hard to create your own alias. And Tikka I have better things to do than talk about any of my uncles who are not even in politics.

      2
      1
    • Abash, my boyfriend was like you when i met him. He was hiding his sexuality through his homophobic views. It is a coping mechanism. It is easy to tell that you are as gay as they come. The mere fact that you can describe homosexual sex so explicitly and so eloquently is evidence of your homosexuality. I know you want to feel a man fill you up from behind while you whimper like a helpless little boy and spasm into an a.n.al orgasim.

  5. This deal was negotiated by Edgar Lungu. He did all the work and negotiations. Just like with the new State Of Art Hospital being built by our Arab Partners. Give credit to the projects PF either did or initiated….

    14
    6
    • Lazy lungu did Jack! Very laughable. All he did was run up our debt while partying and screwing prostitutes on the national jet.

      3
      9
    • Impostor if you spend more time online learning instead of cloning other accounts you would make something out of your life my friend.

      2
      1
  6. @Abash Did your god not make all creatures
    Are you denying Gods children that right ?
    History tells us Jesus took young boys into his room at night for initiation
    Anyway this is not the topic MOVE ON

    2
    7
    • @ TIKKI

      You have just confirmed that you are sick just like your itchy elastic dirty hole. Jesus did what? Intiated boys, where? You people you come with nonsense because you cannot defend yourselves. What else do you do after playing with faeces having deeped yourselves in your dirty holes. Do you scoop them as brown ice-cream and eat them. How can you call an act o playing with faeces as having a sexual encounter. God Save Us. Can you point a study that says homosexuality is found in DNA or Genes? You can’t becabuse you just create these natives from sick minds, hoping the world will feel sorry and believe you. Baby nappies are in short supply, because homos are buying them to sleep in them.

      6
      1
    • Awash is just a frustrated old gay man who is so angry that he has never found true love. The closest he gets to sexual satisfaction is poking his a.n.u.s and licking his fingers. Just come out and be free to be gay. You will find life much happier.

      1
      3
    • # Abash Homosexuality In Zambia

      Dont stop and tell them. You don’t have to be gay to figure out that gay people have anal sex. That explanation tells us all that they play with human waste that get discharged from human backside. For that reason you are 100% spot on to call them what they must be called. Are they gonna call us all to be gay because we are exposing their practices. Gays want to be accepted but whe you ask them about their acts of sex, they become so edge and defensive.

    • Xfactor your father farks your mother anal and here you are acting as if anal sex is a bad thing. It is clear that you are a virgin. Anal sex happens between heterosexuals too. Grow up.

  7. I am very disappointed with HH and his capitalist focus. His focus is on the amount that has been exported without regard to the commodity availability and price in Zambia.

    9
    1
    • Are you deaf??? We have given out farming inputs for a crop to be harvested by Jan. Then you also have a crop to be planted from Dec onwards. Focus your energies on getting farmers to embrace technology in farming, irrigation and other

      1
      5
    • How can HH be a capitalist when his government is spending lots of money on social goods throughout the country? When HH leaves office in 2031, Zambia will be in far better shape than he found it.

  8. @awash
    study geneolgy & DNA instead of showing your ignorance
    genes make up DNA and they are responsible for our physical attributes
    Look at our Caster Semsnya with high testosterone, She was bore that way
    does that make a freak NO NOT AT ALL

    • @ TIKKI
      There is no science that says anything about gynecology in relation to Homosexuality. It’s a lie and Booshiit. You people are all very sick & delusional. Following another man to the public toilet and deep your p3nis in his dirty hole after he just had a poooo is sickening, pathetic, extremely dirty. If at all that’s what you Homos enjoy out of your sexual encounters, then it confirms how disturbed you are. Most gay people fail to come out because they know that the whole act of being Homo, tells the world that your are a dirty person. Please spare us your daily sick nonsense. You are the lowest of the human race.

    • @Abash what about replacing the man in your argument with woman? I m not queer but as a university student we are taught to look at all sides of an issue

      2
      3
    • Tikki you are mixing things up. Gays are not hermaphrodites. Casper is the latter. She was born with both organs. In her case it is likely that one gender is interfering with the other so fellow female competitors will think she should be running with the males. I dont think thats what makes homosexuals.

  9. In 2011 when PF took over Zambia GDP was 23.5billion whilst Zimbabwe was 14 billion. Today Zambia stands at 29.2billion whilst Zimbabwe has skyrocketed to 56 billion. I will never forgive the PF. I am tempted to champion UPND for one party democracy. Not a bad idea if the Chinese model can be adopted and lessons from KK’s one party state can be taken into consideration.

    1
    9
    • That is a blatant lie! Zimbabwe is in big trade deficits and is not even able to raise money for civil service salaries. It has severe manpower shortages and cant handle hyper inflation. Its GDP is 27 billion dollars

      5
      1
    • Zim is still better than Zed economically despite all their past issues of farm destruction,hyperinflation and sanctions.That gives you an idea of how bad PF was.

      3
      8
    • Which Zim baba? I was in Bulawayo and Hwange just a few months ago. Roads are washed away, buildings are cracking and people are loafing about. Stop dreaming of excuses to bash PF with

  10. I now believe that this President may turn out to be the best President Zambia may never had. He has attained the first part of debt restructuring, caderism is 95% away done away with, I am sure the 5% UPND guys doing caderism will be flushed out, and now the vendors are out of Lusaka, what a breath of fresh air on the Lusaka streets. Methodical, this President is. Kudos, Bravo, Congrats

    6
    8
  11. #UPND Cadre from Ngombe Compound
    Are you a junky or something? Where have mentioned your fullish tribalism? Why are people so sensitive about your tribe. You didn’t choose to be born in that tribe and were others given the option to be born where they were born. Just accept it and be jovial.

  12. @Barbara What made caster that way there is no debate about her attributes
    But what caused such ? that is the topic

    • Did you do Biology at school? Then you will know its not Caster who caused it nor is it her parents. Its not caused by her lifestyle. Genes do mutate due to various events. Some causes could be chemical, others biological. Its a huge field of research

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading