OFFICIAL STATEMENT

WHO’S WATCHING THE ECONOMY?

This week has seen yet more political bickering and infighting that helps the people of Zambia not one bit. As a party the UPND has made its position on these matters clear: Zambians must be able to enjoy their democratic rights, the perpetrators of violence and unrest must be prosecuted, and we never condone violence regardless of the provocation.

As the first month in the year 2016 draws to a close my call is for the PF Government to stop interfering with opposition and civil society activities through the police force and to put their energies into urgently addressing the various economic issues we face. We may now be in a New Year but prices continue to rise, the power continues to fail and jobs continue to come under threat.

The PF Government is setting yet another record in bad performance – inflation is now at a 12 year high. Surely this has to be a wake up call. If the PF cannot hear the alarm, then the Zambian people surely will. It is a call for action and a call for change. The PF cannot keep hitting the snooze button on our economy until 11 August.

According to the Central Statistical Office inflation in January now stands at 21.8% and food inflation is at 25.9%, with basic essentials such as bread rising fastest in price. When President Lungu took office it was 7.1%.

Earlier this month we issued our latest note of advice to the PF Government on how to combat inflation, which is available to read online at http://hh-zambia.com/blog/combatting-high-inflation-the-upnd-way/ and focuses on two key areas, productivity and value-addition.

We have also advised that it is no good contracting more and more loans each month when the economic fundamentals remain unaddressed. Every time our currency devalues the amount we owe moves further and further beyond our reach.

Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President

ZAMBIA’S High Commissioner to South Africa, Emmanuel Mwamba on Wednesday, 27th January, 2016 met several of South Africa’s top commercial farmers whom he urged to take advantage of Zambia’s investor-friendly environment and the abundant arable land.

Mr. Mwamba said Zambia was one of the few countries in the world that had the most conducive environment for investment anchored by political stability.

He said the usual narrative of conflict in Africa did not apply to Zambia as the country has never experienced this from the time it became independent 51 years ago but has managed to peacefully transfer power to six presidents through elections.

“Zambia is one of the richest countries in terms of natural resources. We have huge tracts of arable land across a country of over 700, 000 square kilometres but unfortunately we only utilise about 10 per cent of this. You can fly into Zambia today to register your company and within 24 hours the process would have been completed,” he said.

Mr. Mwamba noted that Zambia would be going to elections later this year and that there were several candidates that had expressed interest in contesting the presidency but “I have faith in President Lungu because he is God fearing.”

“We have been spared from conflict because we put God first. It is not by accident that we have continued enjoying peace in this country which has been officially declared a Christian nation,” he added.

Mr. Mwamba pointed out that Government was now focusing on agriculture as the alternative sector to drive Zambia’s economy.

“We are calling on you the farmers to come and assist us diversify our economy. And what we are encouraging is that you come in and set up an out-grower scheme arrangement with the communities. This will in turn also earn you good reputation as you will be showing that you are a good corporate citizen,” he said.

The High Commissioner urged the farmers to join the Zambia South Africa Business Council which could assist them in addressing some of the challenges they would face in trying to enter Zambia.
Mr. Mwamba was speaking at a seminar jointly organised by Agri All Africa (AaA) and Agri Zambia in Pretoria where he addressed about 50 of the cream of South Africa’s commercial farmers who are members of AaA.

AaA was formed by South African commercial farmers with the aim of supporting the development of commercial agriculture in Africa which they have recognised as the key driver of the continent’s economic development.

And Agri-Zambia Managing Director, Mr. Landon Romano told the farmers that Zambia was eager and committed to agricultural development and to promote itself economically.

Mr. Romano, who spoke about organised farming value and agribusiness propositions in his presentation, pointed out that Agri Zambia was able to assist the farmers access land and also facilitate the registration of their companies in Zambia.

He assured that there was investment guarantees and protection against state nationalisation through the Certificate of Registration for any investment under the Zambia Development Agency Act of 2006.

“Zambia is eager to maximise benefits from its natural resources. You should treat Zambia as the nucleus of how you want to grow your agricultural business because I can assure you that Zambia has great potential to become the food basket of the region,” Mr. Romano said.

Agri Zambia, under the mandate of AaA, represents a team of Zambian and international businessmen, who focus on maximising stakeholders’ value through both non-commercial organised agriculture and commercial agriculture interests.

Lafarge Zambia has successfully commissioned a plug and grind cement plant in Ndola which will produce 100,000 tonnes of cement per annum bringing the Plant’s total capacity to 500,000 tonnes.

Plug and Grind plant is a portable cement grinding plant which uses state-of-the art technology and is fitted with bag filters to aid in environmental management. It has been constructed on available land within the Ndola plant.

Speaking at the event Lafarge Zambia CEO, Mr Emmanuel Rigaux said the Plug and Grind Project was yet again a new innovation by Lafarge Zambia as the Company places strong focus on sustainable development and utilization of resources such as land.

“This project has utilised very minimal amount of land. It is fitted with state-of-the art technology and has bag filters to aid in environmental management. It will add a total of 100,000 tonnes of cement per annum. This contribution will bring the Ndola Plant capacity to 500,000 tonnes per annum.” explained Mr. Rigaux.

Mr. Rigaux further said the plant is good news for the customers as they will now have more of their favourite brand of cement available locally and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“The plant will produce Supaset which will be exported to DRC and other neighbouring countries. These sales are in hard currency which is good for the company and ultimately good for the country, of course in addition to increasing non-traditional exports (NTE)”, stated Mr. Rigaux.

The Guest of Honour at event, Copperbelt Provincial Minister, Hon Mwenya Musenge, MP, commended Lafarge Zambia for commissioning the plant stating Lafarge had continued to demonstrate its long term commitment to Zambia and the region.

“I am particularly encouraged by Lafarge Zambia because your actions are a true demonstration of a company that has long term investment plans for Zambia and the region. This action today further reaffirms this position”, Said the Honourable Minister.

The Minister further said Government was committed to doing its best to help the private sector to weather the storm during this challenging phase in the economy.

“Please rest assured that you have our support. Indeed, it is times like this that we become even more encouraged that we could still utilize opportunities in the economy and continue to give hope to our people. We will surely come out stronger in the end.”

Present also at the event was the LafargeHolcim Group Area Manager for East Africa and Indian Ocean, Mr Dominique Drouet who was on a three day visit of Zambia. Mr Drouet was pleased with the visit and commended the staff for their hard work.

THE Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) has announced that the 100 solar milling plants under the presidential initiative will be in full operational by 15 February this year.

ZCF director General James Chirwa said in an interview that all the solar mills arrived in Zambia last month from China and the installation is currently ongoing in different parts of the country.

The milling plants which are being installed in each of the country’s 10 provinces are aimed at cutting the cost of mealie meal that has reached unprecedented prices in recent months.

Three of the plants which arrived earlier last month are already producing the staple food in Kasama, Luwingu and Solwezi. The mealie meal is being sold at K55 per 50 kilogramme bag of breakfast and K50 of roller meal of the similar quantity.

“The milling plants have all arrived and the installation is currently taking place, and we hope that all of them would be in full operational by 15 February.

“This is an important milestone because it is going to cut off factors that have caused the increase in mealie meal prices in Zambia,” Mr Chirwa said.

The country has experienced unprecedented hike in the pricing of the staple food, forcing the intervention of President Edgar Lungu as millers threatened for more increase.

The increased Zesco power outages which were coupled by maize shortages had also forced the Government to the commodity to millers in a bid to stabilize the price of mealie meal.

“As fuel price goes up as well as the cost of electricity it has become almost inevitable for the cost of mealie meal to also increase but this will now be different we have already proved it in the districts where we are producing,” he said.

Mr Chirwa assured the consumers that the cost of mealie meal produced by solar plants would be affordable and sustainable.

As well as helping to reduce mealie meal prices, the solar hammer mills are expected to create more than 3,000 jobs.