GOVERNMENT has encouraged investors to consider setting up filling stations in Kazungula District to support economic activities in the area.

Kazungula District Commissioner ,Pascalina Musokotwane encouraged local businessmen and women to take advantage of the enabling environment that Government had provided to set up filling stations in District.

She said the lack of filling stations led to the proliferation of illegal fuel vending, adding that the quality of fuel sold by illegal vendors could not be guaranteed.

“Consumers in Kazungula still have to travel outside the district to buy fuel, with the nearest filling stations being over 60 kilometers from here, in Livingstone.

“Quality of fuel sold by illegal vendors cannot be guaranteed as it could be mixed with other harmful substances. Furthermore, there are safety risks associated with the storage of illegal fuel in homes and other undesignated areas,”Ms Musokotwane said.

The District Commissioner was speaking during an energy stakeholders meeting organised by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) in Kazungula District, Southern Province on Tuesday.

Ms Musokotwane said for the past four years, Kazungula has been experiencing a lot of infrastructure projects that were being undertaken by the Patriotic Front (PF) Government such as the construction of a district hospital, as well as construction of business and housing units.

“I wish to appeal to ZESCO to ensure that reliable and quality power is supplied to the district in order to promote more infrastructure growth in the district,”she said.

ERB Southern Region senior Manager, Steven Mwinga disclosed that Zambia only had 270 filling stations out of which only 33 were located in Southern and Western Provinces.

Mr Mwinga said there was an urgent need to increase the number of filling stations in Southern and Western Provinces from the current 33 to over 50.

He called on investors to fully invest in the energy sector in order for them to reap the numerous benefits and opportunities that existed.

Caribbean Chicken proprietor and Chief Executive officer, Newton Silwenga appealed to Government and ERB to help integrate the illegal fuel vendors into cooperatives with funding from Government, to enable them contribute to the growth of the energy sector.

“As we think about developing new filling stations, let’s think about these people (illegal fuel vendors) so that we help integrate them in the mainstream. If we prioritise filling stations owned by foreigners, how are they going to benefit from that?

“That’s where we need to think about the cooperatives that Government is promoting, let the vendors come together and form a cooperative so that they set up their own filling station,” he said.

Sports, Youth and Child Development Minister Vincent Mwale says Government is concerned with the high default rates for its empowerment programs being rolled out under the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission -CEEC- and Youth Empowerment Fund.

Mr. Mwale has attributed this to lack of priorities among most youthful entrepreneurs.

He was speaking when he officiated at the launch of the Mara Mentor Foundation by founder of Atlas Mara the owners of Banc ABC, Ashish Takker.

He says Zambia’s youths who form 82 percent of the population can contribute to economic growth if harnessed.

The Minister has noted that President Edgar Lungu last year launched the youth policy and action plan meant to address poverty levels and unemployment through a multi sector empowerment approach.

He says the youth mentorship program by Mara Foundation is what Zambian youths need alongside empowerment programs by government like farming initiatives where they are being given free land for agro activities with CEEC setting aside 40percent of empowerm

And Mr. Takker has commended President Lungu for supporting the initiative from inception as he has been passionate about it.

He says unemployment can only be stopped not by Foreign Direct Investment alone but by nurturing Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.

Despite the difficult and challenging global economic situation, African countries achieved considerable economic progress in 2015, registering a 3.6% average GDP growth during the year when the best performers in developed countries hardly reached 2%. Africa also accounts for five of the world’s fastest-growing economies with Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania registering growth rates of seven percent or more.

These are some of the positive stories presented to thousands of participants at the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings in Lusaka, Zambia, on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 by its Vice-President for Finance, Charles Boamah, and Treasurer, Hassatou N’Sele, who underscored the Bank’s strong financial standing and preparedness to support the regional member countries.

However, the much-celebrated growth comes with downside risks such as persistent commodity prices declines, inadequate infrastructure, non-inclusivity and global headwinds which impede growth and underscore the need for diversification.

In 2015, economic performance was varied across countries and regions, with Eastern Africa at the top of the group with an average GDP growth of 6.3%, from 6.5% the previous year. Central Africa averaged 3.7% from 6.1% while Western Africa recorded a sharp decline to 3.3% from 6% in 2014. In North Africa, growth more than doubled from 1.4% to 3.5% during the year, while Southern Africa slowed to an average of 2.2% from 2.8% in 2014, making the region the slowest growth pole in the continent during the year in review.

According to the presentation, these figures challenge the notion that Africa’s phenomenal growth in recent years were essentially derived from the commodities boom. In East Africa, for example, growth was weighed down by instability and political crisis in Burundi and South Sudan, while the slump in West Africa was the direct effects of depressed commodity prices, the Boko Haram phenomenon and the Ebola epidemic. In the Central African region, the decline in oil and metal prices were the main causes just as the acute shortages of power, climate change and low commodity prices negatively impacted growth in the Southern Africa region.

Africa’s resilience at a time when frontline global economies were struggling can be attributed to strong public investment especially in infrastructure, strong domestic consumer base, a burgeoning services sector and gradual economic diversification.

The report projected the continent’s average GDP growth to 3.7% and 4.5%, respectively, in 2016 and 2017.
The Bank Group, which caters to the development needs of the 54 Regional Member Countries, equally made significant progress in 2015, registering a 25.4% increase in its operations, with total investments of USD 8.8 billion in projects and programmes during the year.

As in the previous years, and in line with the Bank Group’s Ten Year Strategy, the huge chunk of these investments were devoted to infrastructure operations (mainly transport and energy).

According to the report, the Bank is more than ever fit for purpose to accelerate the continent’s development with its High 5 priorities designed to leverage the Ten Year Strategy in the five domains considered to be critical to the continent’s growth and development: Light up and power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

In energy, the topmost priority that is likened to blood in the human body, the AfDB plans to invest USD 12 billion and leverage about USD 50 billion over five years to light up and power Africa in 10 years. It will quadruple resources to agriculture, which will henceforth be treated as a lucrative business; from a current annual average of USD 612 million to about USD 2.4 billion. The annual investment in industrialization is estimated at USD 5.6 billion; while some USD 3.5 billion per year will be devoted to the development of high quality infrastructure from 2016.

Boamah and N’sele were quick to cite some of the Bank’s emblematic realizations as proof of is capability and readiness to give Africa the push it requires for transformation. These include a USD 142.7-million Bamako-San Pedro Corridor, which serves as a transit port for neighbouring countries; the USD 42.4-million Africa Backbone Project which supports the diversification of Cameroon’s economy and well as promotes regional integration by enabling neighbouring countries to access fiber-optic infrastructure; as well as the USD 300-million Nacala Rail and Port project, which links Mozambique with Malawi and other countries in the region thereby helping to improve global competitiveness of the region’s mineral, agricultural and manufacturing exports.

With its triple A ratings from all the major rating agencies, intrinsic financial strength bolstered by shareholders’ support, the AfDB is seen as a solid institution to pursue Africa’s development goals, the report said, citing a quote from Standard and Poor’s in 2015 which says, “Our assessment of AfDB’s financial profile as very strong, predominantly reflects an improvement in the Bank’s capital adequacy.”
To read the full Annual Report: http://bit.ly/1TyyHvo

The Zambia Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers- ZUFIAW President, Mr. Ackim Mweemba, has observed that the imminent bailout program proposed by the IMF has once again exposed Zambia as a country that it has failed to properly manage its national affairs.

President, Mr. Ackim Mweemba, has observed that the imminent bailout program proposed by the IMF has once again exposed Zambia as a country that it has failed to properly manage its national affairs.

Mr. Mweemba noted that member countries run to Brent Wood Institutions in turbulent times, an act that renders them too weak to negotiate better packages for their respective countries. “An inquiry into how nations get to this level would be prudent and indeed critical in moving forward our beloved country, Zambia” he stated.

He further elaborated that it was at instances of defining moments that nations resorted to IMF bailout solutions, and at that point, it were the workers that suffered the greatest. The ZUFIAW leader challenged government to prescribe the dosage for the country especially that it would only be administered after the 11th August, 2016 elections.

He mentioned that ZUFIAW as an institution that represent the workers, was mindful of excruciating austerities in the policies imposed by the IMF on desperate countries in exchange for such bailouts, which in most cases present serious constraints on the welfare of the already burdened workers.

The IMF are on record of having wrecked misery to many Zambian workers in 1991, by forcing our government then, to implement the infamous privatization of national enterprises, structural adjustment programs (SAP) and deregulation of the market, including the labor market which reduced the collective bargaining power of workers.

Since then, wage suppression has become the order of the day, with political autonomy taken away, the Zambian government was forced to sell national assets such as the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) conglomerate to the descendants of those that colonized us. We are now grappling with huge budget deficits because we are at the mercy of the mining companies.

Against this back ground, the Zambian workers need to be resilient, strong and courageous with a positive mind and focus to better times in the midst of hard time at present and in near soon. Hope is assured for their improved conditions of service yet not today, tomorrow but the other day.

He further observed that it will be absolutely wrong for the government to remove subsidies on electricity and pump fuel prices because this would kill small enterprises and the cost of living will be unbearable especially for women and the youths.

He stated that the Removal of these subsidies was, but just a gimmick by the IMF to compel the country to surrender these two important sectors of our economy, just like we no longer have a say on the mining sector. Any attempt to withdraw fertilizer input support program (FISP) by the government will have far reaching consequences on the economy.

The IMF sometimes in their prescription include the removal of subsidies on the staple food of a particular nation by encouraging recipient countries to grow cash crops for export and yet flood that country with subsidized crops from the powerful nations controlling them.

Mr. Mweemba advised that our main objective as a country should be to avoid finding ourselves in this trap, adding that this would be the third time we were finding ourselves knocking on the doors of the IMF for assistance since independence. He stressed the need to examine our spending and investment priorities as well as our borrowing patterns as preventive measures against crippling the economy: the current case of Zambia.

“Our country’s economy is under massive pressure as viewed from the point of view of low copper prices, electricity crisis, and other compounding factors affecting our economy and yet we are boasting of more than fifty (50) years of independence.

These issues go to show that we need to be very prudent in the way we manage our resources. As a Union, we wish to advise our leaders to be more prudent in resource management and invest in high income generating projects leading into the diversification of the economy, a tool for increased financial options and reducing inflation.