Zain Zambia announced the launch of its prepaid roaming, a service that gives customers the ability to automatically make and receive voice calls and SMS using their local Zain number when they have travelled out of the country.

Pre-paid roaming is yet another first from Zain, the largest mobile phone company in Zambia, renowned for its innovative products within the mobile industry.

Zain is also the only mobile phone company to offer BlackBerry business communication solution to the Zambian customers.

Announcing the launch in Lusaka on Friday, Zain Chief Executive Officer for Africa, Mr. Chris Gabriel, said, “this is innovation that I believe will have a positive dent on Zambian commerce”.

“This is the first time any mobile phone company is introducing pre-paid roaming service to customers in Zambia”, Mr. Gabriel said.

Pre-paid roaming will enable all customers on the pre-paid platform of the Zain network to enjoy roaming so they can stay in touch with their family and friends back home whenever they travel out of the country for work or pleasure.

“To start with, we are launching this pre-paid service with roaming partners in South Africa and the United Kingdom,” he added. In South Africa customers will roam on Cell C while in the UK on Vodafone.

Zain has promised to sign up a lot more roaming partners in key countries where Zambians frequently fly to.

Until now, only post-paid clients have been able to use roaming on their home Zain numbers each time they travel abroad.

“Effective today, any one of our pre-paid customers can roam away from home on their local numbers each time they travel to any of the two destinations mentioned above, the list will keep on growing as we add more and more destinations,” Mr. Gabriel said.

Zain has introduced the pre-paid roaming service in response to the demands of its customers and convinced that it will add value to the business environment in the country.

This is also another bid from us to continuously strive towards ensuring that we contribute to efforts aimed at creating a conducive business environment that will make Zambia a more attractive investment place, the company said in a statement.

For as long as pre-paid customers have their phones credited with sufficient talk time, they will be able to use their local number to call back home and or receive calls from friends and family.

He said prepaid customers have luxury to still top up their phones while away using various options including Mobile Top Up, Me2U and even better still, someone can travel with physical Zain scratch cards and still be able to top up while abroad.

Corporate clients who are on the pre-paid platform have now got the privilege to enjoy roaming, which for a long time has been restricted to post-paid clients.

Zain believes that the Small to Medium Entrepreneur (SME) sector, which commands great growth potential, needs to be supported with the right business tools to realize its inherent potential that will eventually benefit the nation.

“I’m happy to advise that pre-paid roaming can be a very ideal business tool that can help unlock the business potential in the SME sector and speed up business transactions that could otherwise be delayed on account of communication limitations,” said Mr. Gabriel.

BANK of Zambia (BoZ) governor Caleb Fundanga is optimistic that Zambia’s inflation rate will be reduced by four per cent or less to meet the 10 per cent inflation target set by Government in the 2009 national budget.

Speaking during a media briefing at the BoZ stand at the on-going Zambia Agricultural and Commercial Show, Dr Fundanga said it is possible for Zambia to achieve the 10 per cent annual inflation rate target in the remaining quarter of the year.

He said the reduction in food inflation due to the on-going crop marketing season including the reduction of mealie meal prices, will play a significant role in boosting the national economy.

Dr Fundanga said the high inflation rate was caused by the discontinuation of Government-subsidised maize by the Food Reserve Agency and pass-through effects of depreciation of the Kwacha against foreign currencies.
He said the BoZ hopes to see continued stability in the exchange rate and would continue to employ indirect instruments in monetary operations.

He said the 19.4 per cent rise in copper price to US$4,045. 66 per metric tonnes from US$3,389.42 per metric tonne, the doubling of sugar production by the Zambia Sugar Company and cement production by Lafarge Zambia, and the diversification of the economy would help the country pick up from its current economic woes.

He said it was too early to comment on whether or not Government will borrow from the public to meet its budgetary costs.

“There is still hope that some donors will honour their budgetary pledges before the end of August,” Dr Fundanga said.

Dr Fundanga also said China’s economic recovery will play a significant role in copper export revenue for Zambia because China is one of the major importers of copper.

He said, however, that relying on copper for more revenue would be risky because prices of the commodity are volatile.

Dr Fundanga observed that inflationary pressures are expected to emanate from high production costs due to current power shortages and the recently approved 35 per cent electricity tariffs and higher international crude oil prices.

The local currency is said to have been relatively stable against the US dollar and appreciated by one per cent compared with a depreciation of 9.3 per cent recorded in the first quarter of the year.

“The average inter-bank exchange rate of the Kwacha against the US dollar strengthened to K5, 281.64 against the US dollar as at the end of June from K5,337.18 against the US dollar as at end of March 2009.

Foreign players made net supplies of US$59.8 million in the previous quarter.

Dr Fundanga also said the volume of unpaid cheques declined by 11 per cent to 5,568 bank cheques and has urged the media to educate the public on the consequences of bouncing cheques.

He also said preliminary data shows that Zambia recorded an overall balance of payment surplus of US$24.9 million during the second quarter of 2009 with a deficit of US$147.7 million the previous quarter, due to narrowing of the current deficit to US$107.3 million from US$231.3 million.

He said copper export earnings have recorded about 19.4 per cent rise.

“Similarly, cobalt export earnings recorded a 39.2 per cent increase to US$18.0 million following an increase in the realised price to US$12.97 per pound from US$5.03 per pound,” he said

However, cobalt export volumes declined by 46 per cent to 628.51 tonnes.

He said that investment pledges totaled US$762.7 million compared with US$1.820.7 million during the same period in 2008.

Dr Fundanga also said the importation of vehicles declined by 25 per cent mainly because of the economic crisis the country is facing but acknowledged that the development is good for the economy.

GOVERNMENT says it is in the process of engaging various stakeholders and the international community to build one million houses along the line of rail and some rural parts of the country.

Minister of Local Government and Housing, Benny Tetamashimba, disclosed that Government has so far received offers from China, India and United Sates of America (USA) to build approximately one million houses across the country.

Mr Tetamashimba said in an interview that half of the houses would be sold on cash basis upon completion of construction while one quarter would be offered to Zambians for long-term payment while the other quarter would be rented out by the investor for a period of time before handing over the infrastructure to local authorities.

“We are receiving offers from China, India and USA to build houses. 55 per cent of these will be sold out-rightly while 25 per cent will be sold to people who can pay in 15 to 20 years while the investor will put the other 25 per cent on rent and hand them over to councils after some years. We believe that’s the way we can move out of the accommodation problem,” Mr Tetamashimba said.

He said Government will in the next three months engage residents in Lusaka’s illegal settlements such as Kuku townships in an effort to demolish them to pave way for more modern housing structures.

Mr Tetamashimba said a Chinese investor is willing to erect pre-fabricated houses with a life span of over 60 years. He said that this will alleviate the shortage of accommodation in Lusaka.

He said the investor is able to build hundreds of houses in a short time as five pre-fabricated housing can be erected each day.

H, however, said Government is yet to make concrete agreements with investors to meet the shortage of about one million houses across the country.

He said Solwezi is among towns with a huge accommodation demand triggered by a rapidly growing mining industry.

Meanwhile, Mr Tetamashimba has warned illegal estate agents against exploiting people seeking accommodation.
He has urged the illegal estate agents to register their companies.

[Zambia Daily Mail]