By Alexander Vomo
The recent announcement by the U.S. Embassy in Zambia to withhold nearly $50 million in health aid, due to the rampant theft of essential medications, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, is a national embarrassment, but more importantly, it is a clarion call for urgent reform.
For decades, Zambia has leaned heavily on international aid to sustain critical sectors such as health and education. But this latest development sends a stark message: donor patience is not infinite. When life-saving medicines are looted from hospitals and diverted into black markets, the trust of our international partners erodes and so does our moral standing.
But Zambia does not need to live in aid dependency.
This country is rich, not in theory, but in fact. Beneath our soil lie resources that could not only sustain but transform our economy if well-managed. Zambia is home to some of the world’s most valuable minerals, including:
• Copper – Our flagship export, in global demand for electric vehicles and infrastructure.
• Cobalt – A strategic resource in the clean energy transition.
• Gold, Emeralds, and Sugilite – Highly sought-after on global gemstone markets.
• Manganese, Nickel, Lead, Zinc, and Diamonds – All with high commercial value.
With this kind of wealth, Zambia should be funding its own healthcare systems, not depending on foreign taxpayers to provide essential medicines to our people.
This is a moment for serious national reflection. The fight against corruption cannot remain rhetoric. It must be actioned with measurable consequences. We must demand transparency and accountability, especially in public procurement, mining revenue management, and service delivery.
Moreover, we must move beyond the export of raw minerals and embrace value addition so that we retain wealth within our borders. Our minerals must not enrich others while our people remain in poverty and our hospitals run dry.
This is no longer just a political issue, it is a matter of national survival and dignity.
Let the suspension of U.S. aid be the final alarm bell. Zambia must wake up, get serious about corruption, and finally begin to build a future that is financed by our own resources, governed by our own integrity, and sustained by our own innovation.
We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the generations yet to come.
Alexander Vomo is a Zambian entrepreneur, farmer, and advocate for self-reliance and sustainable development. He is a member of a growing movement encouraging African youth to take leadership in agriculture, governance, and economic transformation.
Rethink dependence and embrace self-reliance? Just stop the theft and stop embracing mediocrity.
The same US embassy will report that a poor country like Zambia should not prioritise spending on its health sector by paying its way. If Zambia was poor, why don’t these people just leave us alone? In their respective countries they tell us to go back where we come from but when we do, they follow us like a dis3ase that refuses to go away. We need to rethink who we let in the country, especially the ones who pretend to bring charity or those promising wonders. The truth is that our minerals have been secretly auctioned off to these powerful countries and our leaders are just there for lip service.
.. Somehow I must have missed the millions of musungus crossing the Mediterranean in boats to reach a better life in Africa.
My only question since I was a little boy, why is the metal exchange in London and not in Bazil, Chile or Zambia? If Zambia been marketing the copper mined since independence, what a great Country it would have been. But now all we do is slid like a snail begging year after year.