President Hakainde Hichilema has cautioned Zambians to reject blackmail by those that ran down the country’s economy.
Addressing thousands of Chinsali residents during a community engagement, President Hichilema said people who borrowed heavily and failed to pay the debt, now belong to different parties and are seeking to be elected into government.
“They borrowed heavily and failed to pay the debt. After coming into government, we managed to restructure the debt and saved money for more schools and clinics,” President Hichilema said.
The Head of State said through Bill 7, Chinsali District now has two constituencies translating into K80 million for infrastructure development and social protection programmes.
He reiterated government’s commitment to invest in various infrastructure projects and will soon start working on Safwa-Mulilansolo-Chinsali road.
He urged Chinsali residents to vote for the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) on August 13 to realise these developmental programmes.
“Your vote will allow us to build more schools, clinics and address the water and sanitation challenges,” he added.
President Hichilema said government will also work on the access roads in Chinsali while stressing that Chinsali -Mpika Road will be rehabilitated.
He also said government is working on improving the network connectivity in Chinsali and beyond.
And President Hichilema said the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has been instructed to open the depots to farmers, adding that farmers will be paid digitally through mobile phones to avoid the stress of waiting in queues.
“Farmers should not wait for too long to be paid. Farmers should be paid promptly through mobile money,” Mr Hichilema said.
He also announced that government will increase the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) beneficiaries.
The Head of state said each farmer must be on FISP so that they benefit directly without sharing the inputs.
