ZCCM-Investment Holding has called on Zambians to buy shares in ZCCM-IH.

Company Chief Executive Officer Pius Kasolo says government is selling 28-million shares it holds in ZCCM-IH to Zambians both locally and abroad through the Lusaka Stock exchange-LUSE.

Dr. Kasolo says the objective of selling ZCCM-IH shares to Zambians is to enable them take an active role in the running of Zambian big mining companies.

He says the buying of shares in ZCCM-IH by Zambians will close on November 30, 2015.

Dr. Kasolo says President Edgar Lungu has emphasized the need to ensure that Zambians both locally and abroad have an equal participation in running the mines.

He says ZCCM-IH will work with the ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that the information about the sale of shares in ZCCM-IH is disseminated to all Zambians abroad.

Dr. Kasolo says ZCCM-IH is aware that a number of Zambians that have expressed interest to invest back home and called on them to take advantage of the opportunity to own shares.

The Central Statistical Office in its October press release announced an increase in inflation of 6.6 percentage points. The October inflation of 14.3 percent is almost double the September inflation of 7.7 percent. The sharp increased has been blamed on the depreciating Kwacha.

To many Zambians, the increase is not a surprise but a confirmation of the escalating commodity prices most of which have more than doubled in the last few weeks.
The October Basic Needs Basket for a family of five living in Lusaka as measured by the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) exhibited a very similar trend reflecting an increase of K302.1 from K3, 957.46 in September to K4, 249.56. Costs contributing to this was almost all of the food commodities (i.e. 12 out of the 15 food items had seen a rise in cost, the highest being that of Kapenta that saw a K50 increase).

In comparison to the Lusaka October 2014 BNB (which stood at K3, 635.83) there has been a rise of over K600 (16.8% increase). It is also the first time that the Lusaka Basic Needs Basket has breached the K4, 000 barrier and thus a cause for concern to JCTR. This development is of great concern especially that the depreciation of the Kwacha continues unabated. The continued deficit in energy supply and the resultant decline in productivity will make recovery in cost of living even more difficult.

In response to the rising inflation Bank of Zambia has raised the policy rate from 12.5 percent to 15.5 percent and also lifted the cap on lending rates by commercial banks. This monetary policy instrument is meant to curb the rising inflation and keep it within the single digit target for the year. This raises one key concern in the midst of rising cost of doing business and declining productivity.

While the policy may slow down inflation in the short run, it may further stifle productivity as investors hold back their investment due to increased cost of credit. Reduced productivity may in turn result in inflation through reduced supply of commodities. The Bank of Zambia should therefore balance well the need for low inflation and sustaining productivity. The move to raise interest rates will also hurt individuals with personal loans that have flexible interest rates as they will be required to repay their loans at the new rates.

At a time of crisis like this the JCTR Media and Information Officer Tendai Posiana urges government to combine well its policy response to the current economic situation and not always trying to find quick fixes. Recently Government offloaded its reserves on to the market to protect the Kwacha from further depreciation but the Kwacha continues to depreciate and is currently trading at 14.02 (as noted on BoZ website).

While these measures may yield temporal relief by way of dealing with the symptom of the problem and not the cause, Government needs to look at the bigger picture by devising long term solutions that lie in diversifying the economy. Raising of interest rate does not seem to be a good recipe for this long term approach to addressing the country’s current economic challenges such as improving value addition and growing our manufacturing industry.

Energy Minister Dora Siliya has disclosed that Government is spending 13.4 million dollars a month in power imports.

In a Facebook posting after touring Indeni and TAZAMA as part of her familiarisation tour, Ms Siliya said Government is been forced to spend 13.4 million dollars a month on 148 Megawatts imports since October.

She said the power crisis has worsened especially that it has not rained up to now.

Ms Siliya also revealed that she met electricity bulk buyers on the Copperbelt this morning to discuss the power crisis.

‘While we import power and promote solar in the immediate and short term, our long term goal is massive investment in the back bone infrastructure such as the electricity grid and a new fuel pipeline from Tanzania and extended to Lusaka, Solwezi, Livingstone and Western provinces in the first phase,’ Ms. Siliya said.

She added, ‘We are also looking at the possibility of a gas pipeline from Tanzania to Isoka or Chinsali,’

‘It has not rained up to now meaning the hydro power crisis continues forcing Govt to spend 13.4 million dollars a month on 148MW imports since October. We can only find a lasting solution together.’

SOME electricity consumers yesterday submitted to the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) that Zesco Limited should spread out the implementation of the proposed 50 percent increase in tariffs in order to avoid the collapse of various economic sectors.

But Zesco director of corporate and business development Bestty Phiri argued that spreading out the implementation of the tariffs will result in the company failing to make necessary investments required to address the current energy crisis.

Zesco has proposed to increase electricity tariffs by more than 50 percent for commercial, social and industrial users while residential customers whose consumption is below 500 units (kWh) per month have been spared and will continue paying the current tariff of K0.15 per kilo watt hour (kWh).

The proposed tariffs do not include three percent excise duty and 16 percent value added tax.
During a public hearing on the tariff application by Zesco hosted by the ERB, Mr Phiri said tariff adjustments are expected to generate revenue of up to K14.8 billion in the first full year of implementation.

“Power projects are not items you buy off from the shelf; they take three to five years to make returns, if we spread out implementation, it means we will not invest and address the current challenges. The energy crisis needs to be resolved now and not be postponed otherwise we will have a disaster worse than the current one,” he said.

However, Zambia National Farmers Union economist Humphrey Katontoka said the tariff hike will be too high to be implemented at once.

“We have farmers on a monthly fixed charge of K288,000 but this will increase to K683,000, which will be a big jump on the bill of farmers, so we suggest a two-year implementation plan,” he said.

Consolidated Farming Services representative Musa Wanjowa said tariff adjustments are inevitable but that they should be done over a longer period to avoid industries experiencing a cost shock in their operations.

Zambia Association of Manufacturers chief executive officer Maybin Nsupila said the sector will collapse unless Zesco establishes a targeted tariff requirement plan up to 2019 that should be implemented in phases.

“We support migration to cost reflective tariffs but increasing tariffs is not the same as improving service delivery,” he said.

Sub Chief Musengo of Kasama District says his area faces starvation next year as Government has not delivered farming inputs to his area.

And FDD President Edith Nawakwi has charged that Republican President Edgar Lungu does not understand that mealie meal comes from growing maize as opposed to hammer mills which he wants to litter the country with.

Speaking when opposition FDD President Edith Nawakwi paid a courtesy call on him, the sub Chief said his community depends on farming but families face starvation because Government has not delivered farming inputs while the rains have already started.

“Investing in Agriculture has become a challenge especially when farming inputs are been delivered late and the cost of farming inputs are extremely high. My people here face hunger because the PF Government has not delivered any inputs and as can see the rains have started,” The traditional leader charged.

He also complained that Sub Chiefs had been sidelined by government as the y are not given anything like chiefs adding that life had become extremely hard for traditional leaders.

He further bemoaned the lack of infrastructure in his area saying the area had just one school and a small clinic which only operated until 16 hours.

Meanwhile FDD President Edith Nawakwi said she was not surprised that Government has failed to deliver farming inputs to the people up to now because the head of state and his ministers lacked the capacity to understand anything to do with Agriculture.

The opposition President who is in Northern Province to help the party conduct ward conferences said it was clear that President Lungu thinks that mealie-meal comes from hammer mills as demonstrated by his importation of 2000 hammer mills from China.

She explained that if the President understood that mealie meal comes from growing maize he would have supported small scale farmers with inputs as opposed to giving them milling plants further wondering where they will get the maize to grind in their “white elephants” of milling plants.

“Ba Lungu thinks mealie meal comes from hammer meals that’s why he has gone to China and brought hammer meals because if he understood that the process that ends up as mealie meal starts with a farmer planting maize. If this Government understood anything about running the Agriculture sector that’s why they think mealie meal comes from ifgayo hence the importation of the useless mealing plants.”

She further charged the mealing plants are a ploy to buy votes in 2016 using mealie meal to bribe voters in villages and towns.

“We know that the PF want to use mealie meal to buy votes that is why they want keep our people hungry deliberately but they should know that a hungry is an angry man hence the PF should realize that the people of Zambia can not be bought which his mentor Rupiah Banda can attest,” she said.

Later Ms. Nawakwi opened Kasenga ward conference were she called on members to vigorously recruit new members and ensure that the party grows beyond old members.

She said the PF Government should not be allowed to go beyond 2016 because they have destroyed the country and that allowing them to continue would be destroying the future of children.

An additional 162, 572 farmers will benefit from the maize packs under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) for the 2015-2016 Agricultural season.

This means that the number of farmers to benefit under the conventional FISP program has increased from the current 598, 723 to 761, 295 beneficiary farmers.

Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda says this entails that in addition to the 214, 000 farmers that are under the e-voucher system for newly introduced crops, the total targeted beneficiary farmers under FISP has equally increased from the 1, 000, 000 targeted in the 2014-2015 season to 1, 162, 572 in the 2015-2016 Agricultural season.

Mr. Lubinda has told Parliament in a ministerial statement this afternoon that this review implies that areas such as Mafinga constituency which had only 6, 583 farmers under FISP, will now have 8, 370 farmers receiving support under the program.

He has explained that this undertaking of increasing the number of beneficiary farmers will require an additional 32, 514.4 metric tons of fertilizer and 1, 625.72 metric tons of maize seed.

Mr. Lubinda says with the exception of the maize seed, all the required quantities of fertilizer have already been procured by government.

He notes that an estimated total of K42 million will however be required to procure the additional maize seed and K11 million to move the seed and the fertilizer across the country.

And Mr. Lubinda has also disclosed that in view of the high prices of fertilizer in the Country, government has directed the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) to produce 44, 000 metric tons of Compound D fertilizer for the open commercial market.

Mr. Lubinda says the NCZ open commercial market fertilizer which will be made available to agro dealers across the Country, will be priced at not more than K320 per 50Kg bag.

He has warned that any agro dealer, who will increase the price of this fertilizer beyond the stated K320 per 50Kg bag, will be penalized by not being sold any further stock by NCZ.