The Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative (MMCI) has donated assorted items worth K15 million to the women’s fellowship of the Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ).

And the MMCI has pledged K1 million in cash to the same fellowship.

Former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa, who is also MMCI chairperson, said the donated items will benefit the vulnerable people, whom she said were facing a lot of challenges in the country.

Mrs. Mwanawasa made the donation today when she officiated at a fundraising tea party organized by the women’s fellowship of the Reformed Church in Zambia.

She said in order for the vision 2030 to succeed, the underprivileged people should be incorporated in the national development plans of Zambia.

She noted that the church’s commitment to serving the underprivileged people in society was in line with the MMCI’s objectives in its five year strategic plan.

Mrs. Mwanawasa noted that the economic meltdown has not only hit the developed world but it has also impacted negatively on the people living in poor countries.

Speaking at the same occasion, Women’s Fellowship of the Reformed Church in Zambia chairperson Cynthia Banda the fellowship aimed at raising funds for the establishments of multi-skills resource centre that would create various business activities.

Mrs. Banda said the resource centre will have skills such as carpentry, baking and tailoring among others.

She urged women to assist the less privileged people by providing skills.

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EDITOR’s Note

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The World Bank (WB) has observed that the cost of doing business and various structural inefficiencies have affected Zambia’s economy, making it difficulty to grow above the 6 percent threshold.

World Bank Vice President for Africa, Ezwekwesili Obiageli said there are significant administrative and structural weaknesses affecting the way to do business in Zambia.

In her keynote speech at the official opening of the National indaba in Lusaka today, Ms Ezekwesili said the communications sector has remained among the most expensive in the world.

She further said the energy sector, on the other hand remains highly inefficient with the bulk of the money generated by ZESCO tilted towards supporting wages.

The World Bank Vice President for Africa also said human capital has remained underdeveloped and under-utilized.

Ms. Ezwekwesili said the agriculture sector has continued to lag behind despite its great potential to contribute significantly to the growth of the wealth of the country.

She said government has been emphasizing more on fertiliser provision and subsidies without attending to other critical aspects to support peasant farmers such as investment in infrastructure development and establishment of an open market system for the disposal of the farmers’ produce.

Ms. Ezwekwesili further said investors in this sector have had to contend with the poor inputs distribution system, high cost of production, high interest rates, unpredictable markets and pricing as well as inadequate extension service officers to support the rural farmers whose production standards are not cost efficient and competitive.

She said the sector was not sufficiently diversified to help the rural farmers can take advantage of the global demand for various products.

Ms. Ezwekwesili added that the rural electrification programme has still not met minimum benchmarks to attract large scale investments in rural areas, thereby making it difficult for business people in rural areas to adopt new technologies as part of their investments.

She said citizens with sufficient capital resources in urban areas have resisted investing in agriculture because the sector does not offer meaningful value for money.

She pointed out that even commercial farmers with the potential to maximize the economies of scale have struggled to break through, due to problems they face, ranging from sourcing inputs to accessing markets, which have remained highly inefficient and expensive.

She added that most farmers are failing to service their loans with commercial banks and advised government support the sector which she described as important to the sustained growth of the country’s economy.

She said it is now time to institute bold structural changes at micro-economic level because government has lately shown tremendous goodwill towards private sector initiatives.

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VICE-President George Kunda says government is reviewing the process of accessing the Citizenship Economic Empowerment Fund (CEEF).

And the Vice-President said it was saddening and unfortunate if there were people that were trying to shun the national indaba.

Speaking when he made a stop over at Livingstone International Airport from Western Province where he had gone to check on the flood situation, Mr Kunda said government was aware of the difficulties many people faced in accessing the CEEF funds.

”We know there are some difficulties in accessing the CEEF funds and where there are difficulties, we are reviewing those conditions,” he said.

Mr Kunda said he had gone to Western Province not only to check on the flood situation but also to sensitise people on the importance of accessing the CEEF fund.

He said the fund was available to the citizens to enable them contribute to the development of the country as well as to enable them contribute to wealth creation as the only way of alleviating poverty.

The Vice-President also said the traditional rulers in Western Province were ready to work with government in eliminating poverty.

Mr Kunda said the ruling MMD will concentrate on delivering to the Zambian people instead of engaging in petty politics.

And Mr Kunda said the MMD was ready to go to the national indaba adding that it was saddening and unfortunate if there were people trying to shun the indaba.

”Ourselves we are ready to go to the indaba and find solutions to the global economic crisis. We have been devastated by floods and we need schools and clinics,” he said.

He said there was very little time to develop the country and noted that government was doing a lot hence the need for government officials to get to people and explain to them what developmental programmes government had put in place for people.

The Vice-President who was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Brian Chituwo said government wants to alleviate poverty by attracting investors to the country.

And Mr Kunda also said government was working at reviewing the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) in order to make it more effective and benefit more people.

Speaking earlier, Southern Province MMD Chairman Solomon Muzyamba condemned those that had decided to shun the national indaba.

Mr Muzyamba said it was a well known fact that even powerful economies world over were meeting with a view to come out of the mes.

He described those who have decided to shun the indaba as armchair critics who were unpatriotic but were calling themselves as leaders.

Mr Muzyamba said it was unfortunate that when called upon, such leaders decided to shy away from important meeting were they are given an opportunity to contribute.

He called on those that were patriotic enough to come out and share ideas with government at the indaba.

”The world over, governments are consulting and the MMD has come up with the indaba which is a good thing. The indaba is aimed at finding a way out of the miseries affecting the people of Zambia and it is a shame that armchair critics have decided to stay away from the indaba,” he said.

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