Southern Province Minister, Edify Hamukale has assured the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) of support from the Provincial Administration in the public broadcasters’ efforts to broaden its revenue base and stay afloat.

And Dr. Hamukale has implored ZNBC to consider leveraging on the existing infrastructure under the Zambia News and Information Services- ZANIS to reach out to potential clients in the thirteen districts of the province where the public service broadcaster has no presence.

Speaking at his office in Choma today when ZNBC Director General Malolela Lusambo paid a courtesy call on him, the Minister said the provincial administration will use its influence to ensure that ZNBC is able to benefit from the business opportunities, as the province is endowed with gigantic business entities in the Agricultural, Mining, Energy, and tourism sectors.

Dr. Hamukale has regretted that ZNBC is currently owed over 6 million Kwacha by various debtors, saying if the funds were recovered, they would give a boost to the institutions’ operations.

And Dr. Hamukale has asked ZNBC to engage the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services so that district offices under ZANIS would be utilized to market services of the national broadcaster, pointing out that this collaboration would be mutually beneficial especially that ZANIS has presence in all the districts.

‘’It would be worthwhile to explore the use of ZANIS district offices to market your products and services’, the minister said.

Earlier, ZNBC Director General Malolela Lusambo, told Dr Hamukale that he and his team are in southern province to meet among other stakeholders the business community so as to encourage them to take advantage of the concessional advertising rates the institution plans to offer to the tourism industry in Livingstone amidst the Covid 19 challenges.

The Director General who is accompanied by ZNBC head of Cooperate affaires Annie Mukabe said the public broadcaster is aware of the current challenges facing the tourism sector due to reduced foreign tourist inflow, hence the need to leverage on domestic tourism.

Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary, Bright Nundwe has called on residents in the province to take matters of insurance very keenly.

ZANIS reports that Mr. Nundwe said he has noted with great concern that a lot of Zambians have not paid attention to issues of insurance to ensure that their assets and lives are insured.

Mr. Nundwe said the significance of insurance should not be downplayed in any way and as it plays a very significant role in bringing those befallen with calamities.

Mr. Nundwe has as well implored state owned insurance companies to be more vibrant and be able to respond to the growing competition on the market.

Mr. Nundwe said today in Ndola when ZSIC General Insurance Director, Charles Nakhoze called on him at his office that government will always endeavour to ensure that maximum support is rendered to state owned institutions, particularly insurance companies.

“Something has to be done to enable state owned institutions like yours to thrive and adequately respond to the unmatched competition on the market,” Mr. Nundwe said.

And speaking earlier, Mr. Nakhoze said ZSIC General Insurance has in the past two business years of 2019 and 2020 witnessed an increase in premiums.

Mr. Nakhoze said a 35 percent profit increment was witnessed between the two business years and has attributed this to the increase in motor vehicle business and participation in the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP).

The ZSIC General Managing Director described 2020 as a good business year despite the outbreak of COVID-19 adding that the impact was not felt immediately because the company did most of its renewals in the first quarter of 2020.

“Our premiums grew by about 34 percent between 2019 and 2020 from K254.7 million in 2019 to 372.9 million in 2020 and these figures are yet to be audited.

From this we expect to produce a profit of not less than K35 million for the year 2020, the figures may vary depending on what the auditor say but we do not expect that the variation will be more than 20 percent,” he said.

He added that the coming on board of the Industrial Development Committee – IDC has helped the firm and has enabled it to pay retirees and claims.

Mr. Nakhoze said the IDC has enabled ZSIC to operate as a commercial entity and note a government institution.

“Another thing that has helped us to improve our outreached has been we invested in core business software called ‘Info Ins’ where we spent about K13, million purely to ensure that we improve the relationship between us and the clients,” Mr. Nakhoze said.

Kafue One Stop Centre Coordinator Likando Zulu has said cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) have increased in Kafue District a result of economic hardships many families are facing in the district.

She noted that the Centre recorded 26 cases of sexual violence, 71 cases of physical abuse, 41 cases of denial of resources and 37 cases of psychological abuse.

“Abuse of alcohol has also contributed to the rise cases of GBV in Communities,” said Mrs. Zulu.

She further said the outbreak of the Coronavirus has also contributed to the soaring number of cases because families are spending much time together and it is resulting in GBV.

Mrs. Zulu said currently the One Stop Centre has no safe house where to keep GBV survivors.

“After attending to these victims we send them back to the homes where they are coming from because we do not have a safe,” she said.

She appealed to cooperating partners and well-wishers to help the Centre construct a safe house for GBV

Mrs. Zulu further appealed for financial support to the institution for empowering GBV survivors.

She explained that last year the institution trained about seven GBV survivors in entrepreneurship skills but they do not have capital to venture into various business

Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) President, Right Musoma has condemned some church mother bodies who wrote to President Edgar Lungu to discourage him from signing the Cyber security and Cyber-crimes bill.

“I am disappointed with the three church mother bodies who wrote to the Republican President to discourage him from signing the cyber bill,” he said.

Mr. Musoma explained that no clergy who means well for the Zambia people would stand against the signing of the bill.

He said the bill that awaits the President’s signature in order to be implemented, is a progressive bill.

Mr. Musoma said this during a press brief at Chrisma Hotel this morning.

“There has been an outcry from the Zambian citizens with regards to cyber-crimes and without the enactment of this bill, our people will remain vulnerable to the perpetrators of cyber-crimes. The President heard the cry of the people and together with the parliamentarians worked on a protective bill”, he explained.

According to Mr. Musoma, the people who are speaking against the bill are under instruction by some leaders of the opposition who have something to hide.

He advised church mother bodies to stick to their duty towards the nation without fear or favor for any political leader as this will disadvantage the interests of the people.

Mr. Musoma said the people have spoken through the Parliamentarians who voted for the bill and that he has no reasons for opposing the bill.

He said his party will not allow any political party or member of the Clergy to disadvantage the protection of the citizenry by blocking the implementation of the Cyber Bill.

Former Freedom Fighters in Mkushi District have commended President Edgar Lungu for effecting the Edgar Chagwa Lungu Multi-Purpose Empowerment Cooperative(ECL—MPEC) to give assistance for this Group.

Mkushi Ex-Freedom Fighters Interim Chairperson Maryion Chisenga told ZANIS that his organization is thankful to President Lungu for considering the plight of Freedom fighters through empowerment from the ECL—MPEC.

Mr. Chisenga said that the move deserves to be commended as it showed that President Lungu acknowledged the significance of freedom fighters as personnel that built the foundation of this Nation.

He observed that that the current generation of citizens are able to flourish because of the sacrifice that the freedom fighters put in towards the struggle for independence, adding that President Lungu’s gesture has exemplified this appreciation.

“I am 86 years old and I have seen the current generation flourishing in the free Republic that we freedom fighters had fought for against colonial oppression,” he said.

He said that the Freedom fighters have noted that the country is amongst other nations whose economy has been destabilized, saying that President Lungu deserved to be commended for mitigating this impact through welfare assistance to cushion the poor.

Mr. Chisenga cited the ECL-MPEC, Social Cash Transfer as well as Food Security Pack as being amongst the welfare assistance that are cushioning the vulnerable from poverty.

He said that it should be noted that the welfare assistance is being catered for young and old, saying that this showed that the Leadership of President Lungu has compassion for all demographic sectors of society.

He expressed hope that more assistance would be accorded for ex-freedom fighters, adding that the group is in need of an office to help in coordinating matters for more than 300 members based in Mkushi and Luano.