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The Blueprint For Zambia’s Economic Transformation

KELVIN FUBE BWALYA

With
MAUDEN SHULA

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 All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without prior permission from the publisher or copyright holder.

©Text Kelvin Fube Bwalya, Mauden Shula

©Published edition Datafrika Publishers, 2019
©Photographs, as credited individually

Published in Zambia by
DATAFRIKA PUBLISHERS
A division of Datafrika Research Ltd
Lusaka

ISBN 978-9982-70-752-7

Cover photograph by Frontier Studios

Design and typesetting by Adam Phiri

To book KBF for speaking engagements, contact us on

Cell: +260 978552867

Email: kbfzambia@gmail.com

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 DEDICATION
To my late father, Eric Benson Bwalya and my late
mother Florence Kasomo Bwalya…

“Your labour was not in vain. I will not disappoint

you, nor will I disappoint the Zambian people”

Zambia Must Prosper!

-KBF

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 “When our people are able to live in safe and secure
communities, have access to good education and
health services, can find work any time they want to
work & able to earn a decent living, be able to meet
with anyone at any time and freely express their
views without fear; only then can we say Zambia is a
well governed nation”
-Kelvin Fube Bwalya-KBF

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION…………………………………….........................................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………….ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………x
FOREWORD……………………………………………………………………….xi
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..1
1.0 A NEW VISION FOR A NEW ZAMBIA……………………………………9
2.0 REUNITING A POLARISED NATION……………………………………15
3.0 A NEW GOVERNANCE CULTURE……………………………………..25
4.0 THE JOURNEY TO 5 MILLION JOBS…………………..47
5.0 DEPLOYING GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT FOR JOB
CREATION…………………………………………………………………………55
6.0 RAPID IMPACT WARD BASED DEVELOPMENT
MODEL............................................................................................63
7.0 A HOUSE FOR EVERY ZAMBIAN FAMILY……………….…………..71
8.0 CREATION OF PRODUCTION ZONES…………………………………79
9.0 EXPLOITING ZAMBIA’S GEOGRAPHY……………………………….105
10. LOCAL CHURCH BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FUND……………121
11. EVERY YOUTH IN SCHOOL OR AT WORK…………………………131
12. PROSPERITY THROUGH AGRICULTURE…………………………..153
13 MOBILISING THE INFORMAL SECTOR FOR NATIONAL
PROPSERITY.................................................................................173
14. RESTRUCTURING ZAMBIA’S ECONOMY TOWARDS CITIZEN
DOMINANCE……………………………………………………………………185
15. STRATEGIC ENERGY REFORMS………………..…………………...193
16. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT..………………..……………..205
17. A NEW APROACH TO INVESTORS……….…………….................217
18. FINANCING ZAMBIA’S TRANSFORMATION
AGENDA…………………………………………………………………………229
19. SUMMARY………………………………………………………………….249
APPENDIX i. LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………….260
APPENDIX ii. LIST OF FIGURES & DIAGRAMS………………………..261

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledge my wife, Dr. Mary Katepa Bwalya for

remaining the number one believer, true partner and co-labourer
in our aspiration for a better Zambia. Your input and
encouragement continues to invigorate and sharpen my focus
and resolve towards the ‘Zambia Must Prosper‟ Project.

Special thanks go to the „Zambia Must Prosper‟ team led by

Mauden Shula for the extensive and painstaking research work
and the many animated debates and reviews that continue to
polish the vision for a Prosperous Zambia. In this regard, special
mention goes out to Chileya Chilekwa, Rev. George Kazeze,
Mulenga Chella and Derrick Sampa.

Many thanks to the many patriotic Zambians; technocrats,

politicians, senior citizens and Civil Servants that rendered a
hand in bringing this work to its current state.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMES

PF Patriotic Front
RTSA Roads Transport & Safety Agency
GRZ Government of The Republic of Zambia
ZRA Zambia Revenue Authority
Hon Honourable
PAYE Pay As You Earn
GDP Gross Domestic Product
MP Member of Parliament
UPND United Party for National Development
ANC African National Congress
UN United Nations
JCTR Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections
ZMW Zambian Kwacha
USD United States Dollar
NAPSA National Pensions Scheme Authority
ZNBS Zambia National Building Society
PPP Public Private Partnership
MGT Management
SADC Southern African Development Community
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
UK United Kingdom
UAE United Arab Emirates
SME Small and Medium Enterprises
IT Information Technology
UCZ United Church of Zambia
MMD Movement for Multi-Party Democracy
ZANASE Zambia National Service
IAPRI Indaba for Agriculture Policy Research Institute
FISP Farmer Input Support Programme
FRA Food Reserve Agency
FOREX Foreign Exchange
USA United States of America
ERB Energy Regulation Board
EV Electric Vehicle
EU European Union
IMF International Monetary Fund
EIZ Engineering Institute of Zambia
WHO World Health Organisation
TAZARA Tanzania Zambia Railway

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FOREWORD

As at 1st January, 2019, Zambia was, without doubt, a country

at the crossroads. The country was sharply divided into two
parts. On one side, a disappointed and oppressed majority crying
foul over the deteriorating affairs in the nation and on the other
side, a small group of privileged citizens and foreigners who
appeared to be extracting the most benefits from a nation that
seemed to have left its own people orphaned.

From the remote rural areas of Zambia to the streets of Lusaka,

Kitwe and Ndola, sentiments that were fast gaining resonance
included the following:

1. Zambia was experiencing a deficiency in leadership like

never seen before since our independence.
2. The rule of law and governance had deteriorated to
worrying levels.
3. The ruling Patriotic Front Party seemed to have been
hijacked by a small group of people and has abandoned the
principles and values espoused by its founder, Michael
Chilufya Sata.
4. Zambia was under the control of criminal minded, selfish
and cruel people who had no care for the people of Zambia
and who seemed to be only interested in accumulating ill-
gotten wealth.
5. The President of Zambia did not seem to be aware of the
true state of his political party and the nation in general.
Otherwise if he was aware, it would be shocking that he
would deliberately allow this much damage to the Ruling
Party and the nation of Zambia.

Among the multitudes of Zambians that were apprehensive and

worried about the affairs of the country, were millions of
Zambians that eagerly campaigned and voted for the Ruling PF
government during the 2015 and 2016 elections. There were
numerous stories of staunch PF supporters who could no longer

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walk with their heads high on account of the shame that came
with the acknowledgement that the party they supported and
voted for seemed to have lost direction. It was reported that
many ardent PF supporters had become objects of ridicule in
their communities and work places for having supported the PF.

I for one continued to encounter fellow PF members, farmers,

marketeers, bus drivers, entrepreneurs, youths and civil
servants who blatantly accused me of being partly responsible
for the state of our nation. This is due to the fact that I was
among the thousands of ardent PF supporters that vigorously
campaigned for His Excellency, Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu and
our Party the Patriotic Front in both the 2015 and 2016
elections.

Generally, a good number of PF members across the country still

retained their belief in the Party of Michael Chilufya Sata but
strongly yearned for a leadership overhaul to restore the viability
of what they still believed was a popular party. Their sincere
analysis of the situation was that the PF as a party, was a lost
cause should it elect to march-on with the same leadership
composition currently in charge.

Beyond party lines, Zambians had concluded that our nation

was doomed if, God forbid, the current type of national
Leadership was to go on beyond 2021! It was, therefore, expected
that Zambians were frantically scanning the political landscape
looking for direction and salvation out of an apparent leadership
quagmire. Our citizens were apprehensive and want to be careful
to avoid committing a fatal error in the choice of national
leadership going forward. This time around, stakes are too high
and possible consequences of proceeding with poor leadership
beyond 2021, too ghastly to imagine!

My personal contention is that at this juncture in the history of

our nation, we cannot afford to experiment with leadership any
further. It is a make or break situation for our nation.

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The Difference Between a Leader & a politician

I am fully aware that there are many patriotic Zambians who

continue to marvel and stress over the levels of incompetence,
unbridled greed and lack of empathy that characterises some of
our citizens who hold themselves out as leaders. Many are the
times when citizens wonder how a Zambian with a normal
conscience would allow his country to spend $42 million as
opposed to the fair price of $11 million when acquiring 42 fire
trucks. I know it beats the logic of many Zambians when
politicians increase taxes for citizens whilst at the same time, the
same politicians are allowing abuse and embezzlement of public
resources to go on unabated. Yes, it beats our logic because we
know that the net effect is that citizens are squeezed to
contribute more to government coffers only for some in positions
of power to have more public funds to embezzle and abuse with
little benefit to the general citizenry!

“Do we not have technocrats in this government?!”...is a cry many

educated Zambians often express when they see our government
make blunder after blunder and fail to make simple decisions in
the interest of the nation and its citizens.

To the many Zambians that continue to be frustrated and

amazed at the conduct of some of our so called leaders, I have
this wake up call to offer. Although we have been accustomed
to look at many of these people as leaders, the truth is that,
many of them are not leaders but politicians! Let me qualify
my statement with the following few distinctions:

1. A leader will genuinely be concerned about the well-being

of his nation and will actively seek ways to improve affairs
of his fellow citizens. A politician’s foremost motivation, on
the other hand, is to attain power or proximity to power
with the sole purpose of acquiring access to public
resources for personal benefit.

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 2. A genuine leader will seek the most efficient and effective
ways of applying public resources for the best dividends to
the nation. A politician will eagerly spend public funds on
expensive vehicles, hotels and travel for his personal
enjoyment. Yes, the politician will do this with a ‘clear
conscience’
3. A leader will never allow his country to be overcharged for
public projects. A politician, on the other hand, actively
seeks kick-backs and cares less if his country is charged
four times the fair price for public projects.
4. In times of economic hardship, a leader will never call for
the re-registration of vehicles and charge a fee of K500. If
this exercise was of vital necessity, a true leader would peg
a minimal fee of K50 for the exercise. A politician on the
other hand will insist on this non-value adding exercise to
extort more money from struggling citizens without any
shame.
5. A leader will never pay himself gratuity and benefits when
he knows there are thousands of citizens who have been
waiting to be paid their pension benefits for years.
6. A leader will not fear to engage his citizens with the truth
whilst a politician’s most treasured tools of the trade are
deceit, lies and intimidation.

The list can go on and on, but I believe you get the general idea.
The point is; no matter our naïve expectations as the people of
Zambia, some of the people we call leaders have never had the
interest to serve the people of Zambia. They have never bothered
to sit down to envision a better Zambia, formulate solutions for
this country and I am sorry to announce that they never will!
They don’t have the time for this because they are busy
scheming and executing ways to siphon as much money from
public coffers as possible.

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A New Leadership Code

So for Zambians who are looking for a measure to identify

genuine leaders who are serious and truly committed to
transforming this country, this is how you distinguish them from
the rest:

They are people who are willing to commit themselves to

only get paid after every government employee has been
paid. They are people who are ready to get half pay until
they manage to pay every pensioner who has been on the
waiting list for more than one year. They are people with the
moral fibre to refuse to be paid gratuity and terminal
benefits when they know thousands of civil servants have
been on the waiting list for years for their benefits. They are
people who are, out of principle, ready to go without pay
until all students have received their meal allowances. These
are people who will refuse to spend public funds on first
class air travel, 5 star hotels and other luxuries when they
know millions of children have no access to safe drinking
water.

Given the current state of affairs in our country, this is what I

expect of any leader worth his salt. Such a people will definitely
be genuinely serious about creating employment, formulating
solutions for late salaries, delayed pension payment and
ensuring dignity for our people. Such a people will be truly in the
game to serve the Zambian people.

If a minister or MP gets his salary, allowances, benefits and

gratuity on time and flies around first class, do you genuinely
expect him to fully apply his mind to ensuring every civil servant
is paid his salary and pension benefits on time?! You will be
joking to expect that! I genuinely think that gone should be those
days when pretenders are allowed to acquire access to national
resources and benefit from them without offering the Zambian

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people leadership performance worth the benefits they enjoy. We
must now go for real performance based leadership.

Political office bearers must now be expected to perform certain

minimum duties of which if they fail, they should not be paid
from public resources until they perform. As a people, we should
now become very descriptive about the challenges we face as a
nation, together with the solutions we seek. Therefore when
people clamour to lead our nation, we should put a list of
demands before them and be able to say:

“This is what we seek as a nation, are you capable of delivering

these?”

And if they say ‘yes’ we should be able to say to them;

“As citizens and your employers, we are not going to pay you all
your benefits until you deliver!”

This approach is long overdue in our country and in Africa. Why

should a President, ministers and MPs promptly get their
gratuities and benefits every 5 years whilst we continue to have a
list of former public servants who have not been paid their
benefits for over 10 years?! In my books, a President, minister
and MP should join the queue of those waiting for their benefits
and should not jump the queue. I mean we elected them to solve
the problems of delayed pensions payments so why should they
get paid and leave the problem unsolved! When we take this
approach towards leadership, I can guarantee you that a
President and his ministers will begin to take seriously the task
of ensuring thousands of suffering Zambians receive their
benefits timely.

Currently, Politicians are the only ‘employees’ who promise to

perform so many miracles but many times underperform and
even steal from the public and the only consequence they suffer
is to be voted out of power. Many times they are voted out of
power when so much damage has already been done. Ninety

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nine percent of the time, there are no consequences to their
mediocrity and rogue behaviour. No wonder most of the time
they behave like Masters and not servants of the people! This
has to stop!

God is in Full Control of Zambia’s Affairs

I once used to grapple with the question of why God had allowed
the state of affairs prevailing in Zambia, when we are a nation
boldly dedicated to God as a Christian nation by way of our
constitution. Had God abandoned us because we claimed to be a
people of God but hypocritically lived a life not befitting this tag?

It was a relief when it dawned on me that in some instances, God

best reveals himself after what seems like the darkest hour. After
all, God specialises in turning what was meant for bad for our
good as his children! My encouragement to the people of Zambia
is that what we have been experiencing as a nation is very much
under God’s control. Because of what we have gone through as a
nation, we are now clear about what bad leadership looks like. I
bet that now, Zambians belonging to various political parties
including those of us belonging to the ruling PF vividly know the
kind of leadership we don’t want for our country. As Zambians,
we now have a very vivid idea of what a Christian Nation should
not look like. As we embark on a journey of transformation, we
now have a very clear idea of what we don’t want our nation to
look like in terms of governance and the rule of law.

Because of what we have experienced as a nation, some of us

were forced to begin praying and seeking God for direction and
wisdom over the affairs of our nation. To this day, we continue
spending hours day after day pondering, researching, consulting
and debating on the best ways to move this nation forward
economically and socially. I know of many Zambians who are on
their knees interceding for the transformation of our nation right
this moment.

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What is becoming clear by the day is that God truly loves this
nation. That Zambia is a favoured nation and that no weapon
formed against this nation shall prosper. God has a plan for
Zambia’s prosperity. In God’s records, it is Zambia’s destiny to
prosper and therefore Zambia Must Prosper!

For this reason, as we deliberate on transforming Zambia, we

labour with clarity of purpose and unwavering conviction that it
is time for Zambia’s prosperity. It is time for Zambia to take its
place as a torch bearer in Africa’s economic transformation. God
is on our side and if God be on our side, nothing can
successfully stand against us.

-KBF

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 “The wealth of a Nation does not reside in the
abundance of its natural resources but in the wisdom
of its people”

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 INTRODUCTION

At the end of my first book; „Zambia Must Prosper‟, I indicated

that I planned to write a follow-up book that would mainly focus
on offering a practical economic blueprint for Zambia’s
transformation. The motivation for this was and still remains,
the need to reverse the high levels of poverty afflicting our
citizens. Like many Zambians, I am of a resolute conviction that
our nation is sufficiently endowed with human and natural
resources to such an extent that the current poverty conditions
of our people is one of the most unfortunate predicaments we
find ourselves in. It is not acceptable and by all means, Zambia
needs liberation from the unwarranted shackles of poverty. By
all means, Zambia Must Prosper!!

I am particularly embodied about the prospects of Zambia’s

prosperity because of my conviction that, it is part of God’s
agenda for Zambia to prosper at this particular time in our
history. Yes, like a growing number of prayerful Zambians, I am
convinced that there is a divine agenda for Zambia’s prosperity.

Unfortunately, since my first book, certain developments have

taken place in our nation and have put further distress on our
already struggling and suffering citizens. By January 2018, the
price of electricity had increased by a whopping 75%1. On the 2nd
of October, 2018, fuel prices skyrocketed by an astronomical
22%2 and consequently affected prices of basic commodities in
the country. During the same period, our Kwacha depreciated
against the dollar by an unprecedented 26.39%3 within a space
of two weeks. In what felt like an ambush and choke manoeuvre,
within a space of a few months, a flurry of taxes and fines were
unleashed on the Zambian people and included:

1
https://zambianeye.com/zesco-increases-electricity-tariffs-by-25/
2
ERB fuel increment announcement, 2nd October, 2018
3
ERB fuel increment announcement, 2nd October, 2018
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 1. 10% withholding tax on rented properties. Government
began to pursue this tax in earnest and went on to appoint
agents to collect this tax from residential areas. This move
pushed monthly rentals up by 10%, negatively affecting
tenants.
2. A 30 ngwee daily tax on cell phone users.
3. Government announced that it would be collecting taxes
from all informal sector businesses. A K1 daily tax was
subsequently imposed on all Zambians trading from
markets across the country.
4. TV levy was increased from K3 to K5.
5. Government announced its intention to slap a K500 re-
registration fee for all motor vehicles in the country. This
was planned for implementation in the first quarter of
20194.
6. Government, through RTSA, mounted cameras on major
roads to capture and charge road traffic offenders through
an automated system. In the first month of erecting the
speed cameras, K13.6 million was raised in fines5.
7. Toll gates were installed on major roads around the
country to the extent that a Zambian motorist driving to
and from Lusaka and Kitwe, now had to pay a total of K160
in toll fees.
8. Customs Duty for importing various types of second-hand
vehicles has now been set to range between K19,260 and
K240,7506.
9. Government introduced a K250 borehole tax7 on all
boreholes in the country. This is despite the fact that the
government has failed to supply clean and safe water
consistently in urban areas forcing citizens to spend
heavily on sinking boreholes.

4
Ministerial statement in parliament by Minister of Transport (Brian Mushimba), 16 November, 2018
5
RTSA announcement, 17 August,2018
6
https://www.themastonline.com/2018/01/03/zra-introduces-standard-duty-on-imported-used-vehicles/
7
GRZ, Statutory Instrument no.20, 7th March 2018
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 10. In the 2019 budget, government proposed to increase
duty on powdered milk by 10%8.

Also, national debt levels continued to rise, putting more

pressure on our national budget to the extent that over 27%
($2.36 billion) of the 2019 budget was allocated towards
servicing debts with $1.4 billion going towards interest payments
alone!9 With already another 30% taken up by public sector
salaries, only 43% remained for expenditure for key sectors such
as health, education and agriculture.

According to the Labour Force Survey of 2017, of the 5 million

strong available labour-force, only about 2.9 million Zambians
were employed. An estimated 761,669 Zambians were employed
in the formal sector whilst about 2.2 million were employed by
the informal sector. This meant some 2.1 million Zambians were
still available, unemployed and looking for jobs. According to the
2017 Labour Force Survey revised definition, unemployment is a
condition in which a jobless person is seeking and is available
for paid work or business. My contention is that more than 80%
of the Zambians employed in the informal sectors are engaged in
low productivity and low paying jobs and are actually still
looking for better employment. For those who might think that
this is a wild guess, the World Bank determines that 78% of
employed Zambians are in fact ‘vulnerably employed’10!
Realistically speaking, as many as 4 million Zambians are still
looking for decent employment. By year 2021 this number will be
close to 5 million if our country continues with the current
economic management style.

Although, it is held that under a free market dispensation, it is

not the duty of government to provide jobs for citizens, it is
however, the responsibility of a prudent government to create the
right environment for the creation of employment. Even in model

8
Hon. Margaret Mwanakatwe, 2019 Budget Speech.
9
Hon. Margaret Mwanakatwe, 2019 Budget Speech.
10
World Bank Group (2017). Vulnerable employment, total (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate).
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capitalist economies such as the United States of America and
Britain, the performance of a President or Prime Minister is tied
to how many jobs he or she helps to create. In other words, if a
country is experiencing high unemployment levels, it is a clear
indication of poor economic management on the part of
politicians in power. It is an indication that a government is not
pursuing the right policies and investments to stimulate
employment and economic growth.

By October 2018, America was reporting close to 100%

employment rate meaning any person who went out looking for a
job in America, was guaranteed to find a job. Presidents Barack
Obama and Donald Trump were credited for this achievement.

Any economic analyst worth his salt has every reason to

diagnose Zambia’s current economic situation as bleak and
cause for serious apprehension. Ordinary Zambians are equally
well aware that our economy has lost its bearings and has gone
off the rails. Any politician trying to sell a narrative that, all is
well and on course, is only succeeding at further annoying the
Zambian people. No amount of political spinning or gimmicks
can work this time around because for ordinary Zambians, there
is nothing theoretical about the economy. Ordinary Zambians
are living with the effects of negative economic developments on
a daily basis. When the price of fuel goes up, goods and
passenger transport goes up resulting in the immediate increase
of prices of all basic necessities. In the absence of corresponding
increase in household incomes, citizen’s livelihoods are
negatively affected. When cash is in short circulation, Zambians
feel it immediately.

The many government departments, council and parastatal

workers who have been experiencing delays in getting their
salaries, will attest to the fact that things are not ok. Farmers
who have been sleeping in the cold in the corridors of
government offices waiting for their payments for maize they
supplied 12 months ago will tell you this is an economic low they
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have never seen before. Try to tell University students who will
no longer have access to meal allowances that all is well and get
a reaction from them!

Whichever way one looks at it, the stark reality is that our nation
needs drastic reorientation before we find ourselves in an
economic crisis of unimaginable proportions. Zambians may
have different challenges at household and individual levels but
economic challenges rank the highest on the priority list for the
majority at the moment. The need for Zambia to change course
economically has never been this urgent. It is desperate –period!

It has become fashionable for some political players to specialise

in defending failures by our government. These are people who
have chosen to make a living by giving smart sounding excuses
and explanations as to why there are negative economic
developments in our country. These are people who want to
explain away why our economy is underperforming by blaming
everything and everybody else except poor leadership and lack of
vision. Of late, they are even blaming the poor performance of
our currency on opinions rendered by a handful of our citizens!
As it were, the Zambian Kwacha has become so hypersensitive to
criticism, such that every time a handful of Zambians open their
mouths, the Kwacha stumbles against the dollar!

We need to remind each other that citizens elect leaders to offer

direction and find solutions to national challenges. The
underlining reality is that every nation has aspirations but is
perpetually faced with challenges and hence the need to identify
capable leadership to navigate these for better outcomes.
Running a country is not child’s play and if a group of people
would rather whine and blame the whole world when faced with
national challenges, the best they can do is to step aside and
allow others more capable to take the reins. Seleni tubombeko!

My foremost duty in this book is to spell out a bold alternative

course for the redirection and redemption of our nation. The

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underlining spirit in putting these ideas on paper is to pursue a
very practical, as opposed to a theoretical and academic outlook.
I do this, not as a final authority, but in the spirit of eliciting
more views and input from the huge army of knowledgeable
Zambians that have been denied a platform to contribute to this
great nation. I have no doubt that as a collective, we do have
what it takes to recalibrate and usher our nation into a new era
of prosperity. I will be using my Facebook page: Kelvin Fube
Bwalya-KBF to debate and receive input on various topical
issues from all concerned and patriotic Zambians.

My Vision For A New Zambia

As far as I am concerned, the only way you qualify to be regarded

as a capable leader is when you have the ability to produce great
results especially when confronted by the toughest of challenges.
Any incompetent person can give you all manner of excuses for
their poor performance but true leadership is identified by the
ability to produce good results in spite of external and internal
obstacles. In the face of global and regional challenges, true
leaders marshal their inner and collective faculties to map out a
way forward and to emerge stronger and better. Incompetent
leaders will be comfortable with blaming all misfortunes and
challenges on everybody and everything else including demons.
This unfortunate behaviour is what some people have come to
term as ‘politics’, but for Zambia to forge forward, we need to
leave this mediocrity in the rubbish bins of the past.

I find it important that before I delve into laying-out a proposed

blueprint for transforming our country, I should spell out a
summary of my key-most aspirations for Zambia. This is what
you would ordinarily call my vision for Zambia. This vision is
borne out of my reflection on major challenges facing our nation
coupled with a clear appreciation of our natural and human
wealth. This vision does not pretend to attempt to solve all of
Zambia’s existing challenges but rather focuses on major
milestones which if attained in a space of ten years, will set our
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nation on a path towards remarkable social and economic
achievements. It is my expectation that other patriotic Zambians
will pick up the baton and carry-on from there. It is from this
vision that the proposed practical blueprint for Zambia’s
economic transformation finds its basis.

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 ONE
A NEW VISION- FOR A NEW ZAMBIA

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 “The only way you qualify to be regarded as a
capable leader is when you have the ability to
produce great results especially when confronted by
the toughest of obstacles.”
-KBF

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A summary of my aspirations or vision for a new Zambia is given
in the following table:

Aspiration Timeline
1 Establish and enforce the Supremacy of the 1 Year
Rule of Law
2 Establish a disciplined, meritorious and 1 year
corruption free government.
3 Achieve top ranking in Africa in the area of 5 years
good governance.
4 Achieve Clean and Professionally managed 2 years
towns & cities.
5 Establish medical and pension schemes that 2 years
are sustainable.
6 Establish Zambia as the agricultural, 5 years
industrial & export hub of the SADC Region.
7 Create 5 million new and high quality jobs. 10 years
8 Achieve a situation where every Zambian 5 years
youth is either at school or at work.
9 Begin to produce the best college and 6 years
university graduates in Africa.
10 Achieve $25,000 average annual productivity 5 years
per worker
11 Increase productivity in the agriculture sector 5 years
from $1,500 to $15,000 per worker
12 Grow Zambia’s annual GDP to $150 billion 10 years
13 Establish 1,000 Zambian originated business 10 years
outlets in 10 African countries
14 Increase value of annual exports to $40 billion 10 years
15 Attain 90% citizen’s control of Zambia’s 10 years
economy
16 Achieve 70% Zambian households owning 5 years
their own decent housing.
17 Reduce PAYE tax rate from the current 36.5% 5 years
to 10% for the highest taxed bracket
18 Reduce poverty levels from 60% to 10% 5 years
19 Reduce current annual fuel imports by 5 years
$ 500 million.
20 Establish a working labor protection 1 year
framework
21 Hand-over Zambia to a completely new 10 years
generation of leaders.
Table1: KBF’s Zambia Must Prosper Vision in summary.
- 32 -
This vision has been deliberately framed to offer specific and
measurable goals together with delivery time frames. I found this
extremely necessary because it is fashionable for Zambian
politicians to make blanket promises without specifics. The
truth, however, is that when you promise citizens that you will
create employment and you do not specify how many jobs, how
you hope to create these jobs and by when you plan to create
these jobs- it will be difficult to be committed to such a vague
promise. One cannot simply claim he or she will fix Zambia’s
economy without a practicable blueprint of some kind. Without
specifics, it is almost impossible that one will bother to sit down,
think, consult and formulate how to achieve goals. This is
precisely the reason many politicians are failing the people of
Zambia.

From the farmer in the rural areas, to the unemployed youth on

the streets of Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe, we all accept that our
country has been grossly mismanaged. The only people denying
and protesting this truth are a few unpatriotic Zambians who
have chosen to sell their souls for the biblical 30 pieces of silver.
However, our biggest tragedy as a nation is our thinking that our
usual politicians will get us out of the current challenges. The
truth is that only credible and selfless leadership will save our
nation this time around. Nothing short of capable leadership
with a genuine and uncompromised resolve to transform Zambia
for posterity will do it for us this time around. Zambia now needs
a leadership committed enough to finding the time to soberly
assess Zambia’s challenges and map out interventions that will
see this nation cross our „Red Sea‟ of poverty and oppression
into our promised land of abundance.

May I submit that at this juncture more than at any other time
in our history, Zambia will need to put politicians aside and look
for Leaders. We have had politicians masquerading as leaders
for too long and the nation was blinded not to notice the
difference. The consequence is that politicians have brought this
nation to the brink and in all honesty, if this nation was to go on
- 33 -
with usual Politicians beyond 2021, I dare not imagine the fate
our beloved nation will suffer! Without any exaggeration, it is a
matter of life and death; Zambia needs to be rescued from
politicians and put in the hands of leaders.

It is at this point that I elect to declare that I pursue this agenda

not as a political party animal but as a patriotic Zambian with
an unwavering conviction that now, is time for Zambia to
prosper.

The action plans or blueprint in proceeding chapters are all

designed and synchronised to achieve the vision and goals as
detailed in table 1.

- 34 -
- 35 -
 TWO
RE-UNITING A POLARISED NATION
TOWARDS UNITY OF PURPOSE

- 36 -
 “History teaches us that unity is strength, and
cautions us to submerge and overcome our
differences in the quest for common goals, to strive,
with all our combined strength, for the path to true
African brotherhood and unity.”
-Haile Selassie

- 37 -
It will be a serious over-sight on my part to delve into national
transformation without addressing a great evil and danger that is
quietly eating away at our nation like a cancer. This is no other
than the demonic madness of politically motivated tribal
polarisation. It is vital that I address this issue because Zambia
will never prosper as a divided formation. The cornerstone of our
prosperity as a nation is our brotherhood and unity of purpose.
Without the Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central
parts of Zambia standing side by side in our diversity, strengths
and weaknesses, our nation is headed for failure. Divided, it is
absolutely impossible for us to attain the transformation agenda
I am selling in this book. My vision demands that Zambia stands
as one. Tonga, Bemba, Lozi, Nkoyas, Nsenga, Kaonde, Lamba,
Namwanga and every other tribe in our nation, purposefully
united in our diversity.

I might not be competent enough to trace the origins of the

monster of tribalism which is stealthily growing and becoming
more and more pronounced, but none the less, I have chosen to
face it and brutally confront it because the very future of our
nation is at stake. I am not going to beat about the bush but will
be honest and frank to admit that unconsciously, and against all
logic and Christian values that I espouse, I too have not been
immune to the ethnic prejudices that have been cultivated and
nurtured in our nation. I too have at times found myself in the
unfortunate backwardness of „Them vs Us!‟

I know that the majority of Zambians are not consciously active

participants of tribal prejudice and would not want to be
associated with the tag of tribalism. They however, often find
themselves flirting with the vice as bystanders. In most cases,
the greatest guilt which most of us Zambians carry is the failure
to stand up and challenge prejudicial sentiments perpetrated by
our friends and family against fellow citizens of different tribes.
Because tribal sentiments are usually targeted at other people
who are usually not in our company, we don’t get bothered. In
short, most Zambians are usually silent accomplices to the vice
- 38 -
of tribal stereotyping and prejudice by their silence when tribal
sentiments are being expressed against others.

This is in spite of the fact that we Zambians are extensively

integrated amongst our 72 tribes. We have widely intermarried
amongst our various tribes such that under normal
circumstances, it should be absolute madness for Zambians to
even entertain this backward vice of tribalism. Tonga men have
married Bemba women and vice versa; Lozi men have married
Nsenga women and vice versa; Kaonde men have married Lamba
women and vice versa to the extent that there is no tribe in
Zambia that can claim to be 100% pure without any
intermarriages with other tribal groupings.

Today, we have adults in Zambia who have grandfathers on their

mother’s side who are Tonga, grandmothers who are Bemba,
grandfathers on their father’s side who are a combination of
Tumbuka and Namwanga and so on. Zambia is one of the most
urbanised nations in Africa and we have intermarried to the
extent that tribalism is not even a practical proposition in our
nation anymore! How do you propose our young people who are
products of different tribal parentage relate in the context of
tribal prejudice?!

Today having a surname of Mudenda is not a guarantee that one

is a pure Tonga. Often times, the reality is that a person carrying
a Mudenda surname has a mother from Eastern or Muchinga
Provinces. It is totally unfair and unrealistic to try to subject our
young people to the madness of tribal prejudice. Yet we have Phd
holders at our highest institutions of learning, politicians, chiefs,
men of the cloth, senior civil servants and senior citizens, who
are entertaining and perpetrating the backwardness of tribalism!

As the first country in the world to be declared a Christian

nation, it should be a source of great shame that in one way or
the other, a lot of us have been party to tribal prejudice directly
or indirectly. According to our Christian values, tribal prejudice

- 39 -
is of the devil and is a vice we need to quickly shake off to avoid
judgement from God. It is time we paused and meditated on the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 4:19-21

“19We love because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I

love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. Anyone
who does not love his brother, whom he has
seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.21And we
have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must
love his brother as well.…”

For some reason, politicians have kept playing hide and seek
games with this ugly and demonic phenomenal and have
conveniently refused to decisively address it head on. It is now
time that any Zambian leader worth his salt, should stand up to
be counted as we rise up to defeat this foul spirit from the pit of
hell. I am fully aware that we will achieve this, not by our might
or by our strength but rather by the grace of God. Hence my
foremost cry is to the Almighty God to grant us the wisdom we
desperately need in overcoming this vice.

What is dividing us?

I strongly believe that what will help us greatly in confronting

our ethnic polarisation is to have a good understanding of what
it is that has contributed to this polarisation. What is the cause
of our divisions? Why would a Tonga person have prejudice
against a Bemba person and vice versa? Why would a Lozi look
down on a Luvale or a Mbunda? Why would an Easterner not
trust a Nkoya? From casual interactions, the following
sentiments are common and contribute to the entrenchment of
tribal prejudice:

1. The Bembas and the Easterners have been selfish and have
not taken development to other regions. It is time that
other tribes were also given chance to rule Zambia.
2. Bembas are thieves and dishonest.
3. Tongas are tribalists with a superiority complex.
- 40 -
 4. No one can be President of UPND except a Tonga person.
5. Lozis are selfish and practice segregation based on tribe.
6. Lambas are lazy.
7. Easterners are bootlickers and sell-outs.

There are many more sentiments that I might not be aware of. It
is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge the shameful reality
that the above sentiments have contributed to some of the
following anomalies in our nation:

1. Certain government departments in urban areas are

dominated by people from particular regions. Apparently,
appointments are being done on tribal and regional lines.
2. In certain government departments, some staff members
group themselves along tribal and regional lines.
3. Some private and public companies in urban areas are
clearly dominated by Zambians from specific regions due to
the fact that recruitment is wantonly done along tribal and
regional lines.
4. Visible divisions have emerged in the civil service with
Zambians from the Southern Province appearing to have
divided loyalty. Zambians from the Luapula, Northern,
Muchinga and Eastern provinces are increasingly viewing
fellow Zambians from Southern and Western Provinces
with suspicion and mistrust.
5. There is sabotage and infighting at some work places
motivated by tribal bias.
6. Some MPs in parliament have begun grouping themselves
along tribal lines.
7. The 2016 elections clearly showed serious regional voting
patterns. Though Southern and Western provinces were
accused of voting along regional lines, the truth is;
Luapula, Northern and Muchinga Provinces equally voted
along regional lines. The difference simply was that more
people turned out to vote in Southern and Western
Provinces in comparison to other regions.
8. Some politicians are campaigning along tribal lines.
- 41 -
 9. Some Politicians are failing to clearly disassociate
themselves from tribalism and appear to pin their very
political prospects purely on tribal affiliations.

Debunking the tribal stereotypes

I would love us to interrogate the various fictitious stereotypes

that continue to feed our tribal prejudices. Is it possible that
every Bemba person can be a crook or a thief and every Nsenga
person an angel or vice versa? When we go to visit our various
prisons around the country, is it not true that we have inmates
from all the tribes of Zambia? Besides it is not uncommon for
accused persons to give false names to the police when arrested.

Is it possible that all Lozis can be selfish and proud? Is it not, in

fact, the truth that we have proud and selfish Ngonis as well as
humble and generous Ngonis? I for one have met, worked and
related to wonderful Zambians of Tonga and Lozi heritage. I have
also come across treacherous and crooked Zambians of Tonga
and Lozi heritage. I have met enough people in my life-time to
have enough basis to firmly conclude that it is best to judge
people as individuals and as personalities and never as members
of a ‘tribal grouping’. It is my submission that Tribal prejudice
is based on fiction, has no factual basis and needs to be
discarded into the rubbish bins of colonial history.

May I appeal to my fellow country-men to make a deliberate

decision to shun tribal prejudices of the 1960’s and move on
with the reality of One Zambia One Nation. We have become so
integrated as a people to the extent that those who think they
can successfully advance a tribal agenda should be politely
advised that they are fighting a losing battle. I believe that the
power to emancipate ourselves from our mental slavery of tribal
prejudice is in our hands. Only we can refuse the lie from hell
that we are better than others and accept the truth that we are
all different but valuable before God our Maker and to each
other. It is time we closed our minds to the fiction of tribal

- 42 -
superiority and opened our hearts to the basic truth that a Soli
politician has something good to offer a Mambwe leader and vice
versa. It is time we got back to the truth that Zambians should
vote for leaders not based on their surnames or which region
they come from but rather on what they have to offer the people
of Zambia.

A call for National Unity

For national economic transformation to be a reality, we will

need the hard working farmer of Southern Province to bring his
vigour, knowledge and discipline to the table. We will need the
ingenuity and courage of a Bemba man to push for certain
outcomes. We will need the tenacity, fairness and loyalty of a
Westerner to seal the deal. We will need the intellectual depth
and steadiness of an Easterner to unravel complex concepts. We
will need every individual, family, tribe and region of Zambia to
rise up in unison and march to our promised land. Only when
we bring our strengths together can we cancel out our individual
weaknesses and form a formidable force that shall be equal to
any challenge that might arise ahead of us on our journey to
prosperity as a nation.

It is my proposal that as a part of a process of national cleansing

and healing, Zambians of different tribal heritage should sit
down together and confront these issues face to face. A Bemba
man should sit down and hear out a Tonga man on what it is he
is mistrusting of a Bemba. A Lozi man should sit down and
explain himself to a Nkoya man and vice versa. In the spirit of
reconciliation, a Luvale and a Kalunda should sit down, lay bare
their pains, hurts and fears. The man from Central Province
should explain to the man from Western Province why he does
not want to vote for a man from North Western Province.

People from Luapula and Eastern Provinces should explain to

other regions that though they have held the Presidency longer
than other regions, Luapula, Northern, Muchinga and Eastern

- 43 -
Provinces remain just as undeveloped as other provinces around
the country. Lusaka and Copperbelt still lead in development
compared to any other region. Luapula, Muchinga and Northern
Provinces are amongst the poorest and least developed provinces
in our country.

We all need to climb down from our lofty places of self-

righteousness and hear each other, heart to heart. I trust that by
the Spirit of the Almighty, healing will visit our nation as we
boldly and genuinely confront the fictitious issues that divide us.

I call on our chiefs, clergy and politicians to lead the charge in

dismantling mental strongholds of tribal prejudice that have
been erected and fortified by nothing but ignorance and fear of
the unknown. May God deliver us from the shackles of hate and
prejudice and cloth us with love for one another as a people
bound by one umbilical-cord by the name of Zambia.

Zambia-together we will!!

- 44 -
- 45 -
 THREE
A NEW GOVERNANCE CULTURE

- 46 -
 “No government or public owned company official
should use first class air travel paid with Zambian tax
payers‟ money”
-KBF

- 47 -
In the absence of a firm foundation in the area of governance, it
will be difficult to make headways in most other areas of national
interest. In the absence of good governance, a country becomes
dysfunctional. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation defines governance
as the provision of the political, social and economic public
goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from
their State, and that a State has the responsibility to deliver to
its citizens11. Figure 1 gives a good summary of key aspects of
governance.

Figure 1: Summary of key aspects of governance12

Governance is so vital to the extent that just by improving

governance, our citizens can begin to enjoy better quality
development and economic growth without any increase in
government revenues!

11
http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/
12
Source: Mo Ibrahim Governance Index 2018 Report

- 48 -
Poor governance results in inefficiencies, corruption and failure
to implement vital projects. The Financial Intelligence Centre
estimated that in 2017, Zambia lost K4.5 billion of its budget
amount through corrupt activities13. My personal estimation is
that poor governance is actually robbing the Zambian people of
as much as K20 billion or $2 billion per annum! In case I appear
highly exaggerative, on 10th December, 2018 News Diggers
reported that our Secretary to the Cabinet at the time, Dr.
Roland Msiska, stated that government was going to save K400
million annually just by effecting some changes in how
government manages issues to do with government vehicles!14

There are so many ways in which the government system is

perpetuating waste as a result of poor governance. The major
ones include:

1. Misappropriation and theft of public funds and resources.

2. Inflating of purchase prices for government procurement.
3. Impetuous state borrowing.
4. Spending on wrong things instead of the things that can
deliver better public benefits.
5. Poor resource management and supervisory systems.

When I closely look at the effects of bad governance in our

country, my firm conclusion is that our biggest problem as a
nation is not that we do not have sufficient funds to run our
country. Our biggest enemy is indiscipline and wrong spending
priorities emanating from poor governance. I have reason to
believe that just by improving Governance and the Rule of Law,
the economic outlook of our country will improve significantly!

A clear demonstration of bad governance is as follows: we have

millions of Zambians who do not have access to clean water,
decent meals, proper education and medical care services
because people in government claim there is insufficient funds.

13
Financial Intelligence Centre, 2017 Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing Trends Report, June 2018
14
News Diggers, Msiska justifies Lungu’s perks, 10 December, 2018
- 49 -
Sinking and equipping a borehole with a pump can cost as much
as K30,000 and can benefit as many as 500 citizens for many
years to come. Somehow, people in government find it justifiable
to purchase a vehicle costing K1 million for a single government
official even when an option of purchasing a fairly decent brand
new vehicle costing K300,000 existed!

With K20,000, a proper classroom can be constructed in the

rural area, yet government officials are spending K35,000 on one
business class air ticket just to go and attend a meeting in
Europe. An economy class return air ticket to Europe on the
same plane can cost as low as K16,000. Who is not being serious
here?

To put this into practical perspective, if we had a total of 500

government officials who travelled first class to various overseas
destinations in 2018 using government funds, we could have
built 500 classrooms in rural areas if these officials simply
travelled economy class! By patriotic utilisation of resources, we
could have provided the much needed school infrastructure but
our government officials could still have travelled to overseas
destinations!

Committing close to $ 1billion towards upgrading various airport

infrastructures around the country is definitely a scandalous
application of funds when many Zambians do not have clean
water, decent housing, health services and are impoverished.
Without beating about the bush, at the time of publication, the
verdict out there was that, Zambia was rapidly sliding towards
some of the worst governance and economic management ever
seen in recent history.

Between July 2018 and February 2019, I had an opportunity of

traversing all the 10 provinces of Zambia and got to hear views
from ordinary Zambians including from staunch supporters of
the ruling PF Party. What was clear was that Zambians were
uniform in their view that governance and the rule of law was

- 50 -
fast deteriorating in our country. Some went as far as judging
the ruling PF regime as the worst leadership to have had ever
presided over the affairs of Zambia to date.

In 2018, key organisations with grassroots representation across

the country such as the main church mother bodies, The
Catholic Church, Law Association of Zambia, Civil Societies,
Islamic community went on record to express their concerns over
the deteriorating governance and the rule of law in the country
especially in regards to freedom of assembly and speech. 15

In the same year 2018, the Financial Intelligence Centre

produced a report that implicated some people close to the ruling
class in corrupt and money laundering activities. Instead of the
government pursuing the suspected individuals, political
operatives of the ruling PF Party, viciously attacked the Financial
Intelligence Centre16. Any discussions around this expose’ died a
natural death as a result.

In the same year again, some European donors withdrew their

aid to the Zambian Government on account of suspicion of
misappropriation of public funds by civil servants17. As recent as
December 2018, reports emerged that government officials forged
signatures in an attempt to fraudulently access German donor
funds18. Subsequent Auditor General Reports continued to
indicate rampant cases of theft and misappropriation of public
resources but yet, very little action seemed to be taken against
the perpetrators. Indecision was the order of the day.

According to the 2018 Mo Ibrahim African Governance Index

Zambia was on position 18 out of 54 African countries19. The
report allocated a warning sign against Zambia’s governance

15
Oasis Forum statement on Zambia’s 54th independence anniversary, 23 October, 2018
The Mast Newspaper, Arrest of Ndola pastors worry sheikhs, 25 October, 2018
16
https://www.lusakatimes.com/2018/06/10/pf-calls-for-disbandment-fic-board-and-dismissal-of-its-director-
general-mary-tshuma/
17
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/18/uk-freezes-millions-aid-zambia-amid-allegations-fraud-looting/
18
http://tumfweko.com/2018/12/10/govt-forged-bank-statement-to-cover-up-illegal-withdrawal-of-germany-funds/
19
Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Ibrahim Index of African Governance 2018 Report
- 51 -
status confirming that there were some negative developments
taking place.

A pattern was firmly established where cadres of the ruling party

could assemble at will, break the law with impunity without any
action taken against them whilst law abiding citizens intending
to meet for peaceful reasons were routinely blocked from doing
so by the police. This was despite the fact that the police would
have been properly notified beforehand. This fact was recently
highlighted in a December 2018 Judgement by Magistrate
Mwaka Mikalile. In the case of Sean Tembo, Pilato, Laura Miti &
others vs the state, Magistrate Mikalile observed that the police
were in fact supposed to have arrested PF cadres who had
assembled without any notification to disrupt a planned protest
by Laura Miti and team. In this case, the police arrested Laura
Miti and team and charged them with unlawful assembly despite
the trio having given the police notice as per the laws of Zambia.
The police completely let the PF cadres go on with their illegal
assembly without arresting them!

Amazingly, even lone protesters, protesting one thing or the

other are getting arrested20 in our country! In what has shocked
Zambians beyond belief, a group of clergy who assembled at a
Baptist church in Ndola to discuss the proposed 2019 budget,
had their meeting stopped and their leaders arrested by the
police for illegal assembly!21 The unwitting excuse given by the
police spokesperson was that the clergy in question, assembled
to discuss politics. Zambians then began to wonder when it
became illegal for people to assemble to discuss politics in our
country!

Dr. Chishimba Kambwili, the Roan Constituency Member of

Parliament by the, was arrested and charged with unlawful
assembly for addressing members of his constituency over their
plights at work. This case was latter discontinued by the state.

20
https://zambianeye.com/police-arrest-maiko-zulu-for-staging-lone-protest-against-kcm-owners/
21
Zambia Daily Mail, Police charge Ndola pastors, 3 others, 21 October 2018.
- 52 -
Dr. Chishimba Kambwili further reports that the Zambia Police
routinely rejects his applications for public meetings in his own
constituency whilst PF officials are allowed to conduct public
meetings in Dr. Kambwili’s Constituency! Honourable Harry
Kalaba, who was by then another Member of Parliament critical
of the ruling PF, continued facing regular harassment and
intimidation in 2018 and 2019.

Table 2 shows the list of some of our prominent Zambians and

political figures and activists that have been arrested or
harassed in our country over the last 2 years as a result of
political activism. From the table, you will notice that 27 people
were arrested in 2018 alone giving an average of 2 arrests every
month! In all serious honesty, a quick research will readily reveal
to you that this amount of arrests against those critical to a
ruling party was not happening in any other country in the
SADC region except maybe DRC. This should alarm all of us as
Zambians! It will be highly irresponsible if we sit back and watch
this become a culture in our country.

- 53 -
 # Name Occupation Year Arrested
or summoned
1 Eric Chanda Politician 2016
2 Dr. Nevers Mumba Politician 2016
3 Dr. Saviour Chishimba Politician 2017
4 Chilufya Tayali Politician 2017
5 Dr. Fred Mmembe Politician 2017
6 Mutinta Mazoka Politician 2017
7 Godfrey Bwalya Mwamba Politician 2016,2018
8 Hikainde Hichilema Politician 2017, 2018
9 Tutwa Ngulube Politician 2017,2018
10 Sean Tembo Politician 2018
11 Fumba Chama (aka Pilato) Musician/activist 2018
12 Harry Kalaba Politician 2018
13 Laura Miti Civil Rights Activist 2018
14 Mika Mwambazi Civil Rights Activist 2018
15 Bornwell Mwewa Civil Rights Activist 2018
16 Lewis Mwape Civil Rights Activist 2018
17 Michael Zulu (St. Maiko) Politician/musician 2018
18 Mike Mulongoti Politician 2018
19 Justin Chikonde Politician 2018
20 James Lukuku Politician 2018
21 Garry Nkombo Politician 2018
22 Dr. Chishimba Kambwili Politician 2018
23 Fresher Siwale Politician 2018
24 Pastor Lloyd Nsakanya Pastor 2018
25 Pastor Amos Kanyakula Pastor 2018
26 Pastor George Palo Pastor 2018
27 Chiko Mwinga CTPD official 2018
28 Isaiah Mbewe CTPD official 2018
29 Musikani Hampongo CTPD official 2018
30 Bishop John Mambo Clergy 2018
Table 2: List of Zambians arrested by our government for political activism.

Other trends attesting to the deteriorating governance and the

rule of law in the country include the following:

1. There has been an increase in the existence of criminal

gangs in major cities and the police seem not eager to end
these gangs.
2. Cadres continue to illegally allocate land against the laws
of our land.

- 54 -
 3. In many districts, political cadres interfere with the
collection of council levies and adversely affect the capacity
of local authorities to finance their operations including
salaries.
4. After the 2016 elections, suspected UPND cadres, in the
Southern part of Zambia, carried out ethnic style terror on
some of our citizens. This particular incidence has been
buried and forgotten about22.
5. The police service seems not to have authority to discipline
political cadres belonging to the ruling PF party going by
the many instances cadres have assembled without
informing the police as required by the Public Order Act.
6. Those dissenting against the government are easily
targeted and harassed on various charges.
7. There seems to be a general decline in the levels of
discipline within the Civil Service.
8. Several Councils and individual councillors have been
reported to engage in illegalities especially in the matters of
land administration with little discipline and improvement
being recorded.
9. The highly publicised land audit is still to be availed to the
general public.

Though this topic might sound more political than anything, the
reality is: governance and the rule of law have such a serious
impact on the prosperity and well-being of a nation. Genuine
investors prefer destinations with strong governance credentials.
Countries with broken down systems of governance and the rule
of law, routinely attract rogue investors, perpetrate corrupt and
criminal activities and promptly result in a few wealthy
individuals and an ever growing poor majority. Already, our
country is the fourth most unequal nation in the world23.
Genuine commercial competition and creativity is often
decimated in this kind of environment. The people with the best

22
Michael Wahman, Democracy in Reverse: The 2016 Elections in Zambia, December 2016.
23
https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/05/30/zambia-among-worlds-most-unequal-countries-report/
- 55 -
connections to those in power dominate the economic space as
opposed to people offering the best and most competitive services
and merchandise. Abuse of state resources become rife and
further negatively affects the masses as value for money is not
provided for every Ngwee spent by the government.

In the simplest terms, poor governance does not offer the right
environment for the prosperity of the majority. If anything,
statistics confirm that the poorest countries are also amongst
the most corrupt. On the other hand, countries with strong
governance systems also happen to be amongst the richest
countries in the world. Researchers have observed a correlation
between corruption and poverty24.

Given this background, we owe a duty to our country to review

our current credentials in the area of governance and embark on
bold and wide sweeping reforms to return our country back on
track. Zambia cannot prosper as long as governance and the rule
of law are compromised to the extents they are today. This will
require a new leadership with the necessary political will to
enforce good governance.

Need for Political Will

For any country to enjoy good governance and the rule of law,
the number one prerequisite is a disciplined leadership that is
genuinely committed to good governance. Those wielding Political
Leadership set the tone in any country when it comes to good
governance. A country can have the best of laws to govern and
guide on various conduct but these laws can be rendered useless
by an indisciplined political leadership that does not subscribe to
good governance and the rule of law.

South Africa is believed to have one of the best constitutions in

the world but the period between the 2008 and 2018 saw some
of the worst corruption and break-down in the rule of law ever

24
USAID, Corruption and Poverty-a review of recent literature, January 2003
- 56 -
reported in Africa. South Africa experienced what has popularly
come to be known as State Capture25. This was simply because
the President of South Africa then, became complicit to corrupt
activities. Even when bold South African men and women stood
up against the apparent wanton corruption taking place in plain
sight, they could only make painstakingly slow progress as long
as a corrupt President was in power.

Opposition political parties launched motions of no confidence

one after another against Jacob Zuma but to no avail. The
opposition political parties were absolutely correct in their
assessment of the situation but because the President wielded a
lot of power, the situation seemed hopeless. The country kept on
losing billions of dollars as a result of a corrupt cabal that had
the patronage of the sitting President. Transformation only began
to take place when the ruling ANC party decided to recall Jacob
Zuma as President of South Africa and replaced him with Cyril
Matamela Ramaphosa in February, 2018. At the time of writing,
South Africa was still reeling from the corruption tsunami that
had ripped the country apart. Revelations after revelation kept
tumbling out of the closets as South Africa conducted the State
of Capture Commission of Inquiry led by South Africa’s Deputy
Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo.

The consequences of inept government can be fatal. Zambia,

more than at any time in history, desperately requires a
disciplined political leadership at all levels that is absolutely
committed to good governance and the enforcement of the rule of
law. It is quite the norm that when a President genuinely sounds
war drums against corruption, the rest of the government
machinery has no choice but to fall in line. At this juncture in
the evolution of Zambia, a President and his team who are
‘200%’ committed to the extermination of corruption is now a
non-negotiable requirement. Academic and ‘written-speech’ type

25
Wikipedia, State Capture
- 57 -
of fight against corruption will not do it for our country anymore.
We need to clean up this country.

As a nation, we must now take drastic measures to rein in public

funds abuse in these key areas:

1. We must impose a 2 year freeze on the purchase of vehicles

except for essential Public Health Services.
2. We must impose a 2 year ban on foreign travel for
government officials except for unavoidable international
travel commitments. Travel that is related to direct and
clear benefits to Zambia should be undertaken with
minimum entourage and on economy air tickets as
opposed to business class.
3. We must impose a 2 year freeze on government funded
workshops except for those that are of a vital nature. These
will require approval by the President’s office.
4. We must commit to wiping out all pension arrears within 1
year. Leaving the situation the way it is can result in
government ending up paying 4 times what was supposed
to be paid to pensioners. Currently, as long as one has not
been paid their pension benefits, they remain on
government payroll indefinitely. This is an unnecessary
cost to the government and must be eliminated quickly.
5. No government official including the President should
travel first class and lodge in 5 star hotels. Government
officials that want to fly first class can do so from their
personal funds.
6. All councils should run as self-sustaining autonomous
wings.

If I were running government, anyone willing to work with my

team would be expected to operate by the new Leadership Code.
As a result, those that will be serving as Cabinet Ministers,
Permanent Secretaries and directors shall only get paid after
every government worker and student has been paid their salary
and meal allowances. They shall be expected to go on half pay
- 58 -
until such a time that all pensioners that have been on the
waiting list for more than a year are paid their benefits. They
shall not enjoy any luxury until every Zambian has access to
clean water. Until every Zambian child is able to learn in a
decent classroom, there shall be no purchase of new vehicles for
government officials.

It is my conviction that under this leadership code, leaders will

be truly serious about serving the people of Zambia and
formulating solutions for this nation. As long as those
masquerading as servants of the people get their pay before
Zambian workers and pensioners, they will never be serious
about serving this country. There is really no morality for a so
called leader to enjoy perks, allowances and government luxuries
while the people of Zambia continue to struggle. After all, the
pensioners would have already paid their taxes.

Enactment of Firm But Fair laws.

In addition to the need for the political-will to ensure good

governance, it will be necessary to enact new laws and policies
aimed at further entrenching good governance. The reality is that
when it comes to the breakdown of the rule of law and
governance systems, the main culprits, more often than not, are
privileged people holding senior public offices. The ordinary man
on the streets contributes insignificantly to the break-down of
the rule of law. In most cases, it is people with power and
authority who are responsible for the breakdown of the rule of
law and for the entrenchment of poor governance. It is the
politicians, law enforcement officers and civil servants. For this
reason, any review in laws and policies towards the attainment
of good governance will need to affect how politicians, law
enforcement officers and civil servants do business and run the
systems of government. This is a desperate must do!!!

The following are some immediate policy direction we must take

towards entrenching the rule of law and good governance:

- 59 -
1. Every politician, senior and strategic civil servant will be
required to declare their assets and liabilities on taking up
new appointments. They will then be subjected to lifestyle
audits every 2 years. Decisive action will be taken against
those with unexplained accumulation of wealth.
2. Each government ministry, department and parastatal
must be subjected to quarterly internal audits. Controlling
officers must be required to take immediate action against
erring officers.
3. Corruption, misappropriation and misapplication of
government resources will become a ‘treason-felony’
attracting 5 years minimum mandatory prison sentence
plus recovery of misappropriated/misapplied funds.
Corruption and theft of public resources is economic
sabotage and a crime against the Republic of Zambia by
any measure. There can be no compromise on this!
4. Each government ministry, department and parastatal
must under-go annual external audits by the Auditor
General. If anomalies are identified, the controlling officer
together with internal auditors shall be answerable.
Penalties will include immediate dismissal, imprisonment
and recovery of funds from the controlling officer and
internal auditors.
5. Auditor General will be given prosecution powers with the
establishment of such a wing. The Auditor General will no-
longer wait for the Anti-corruption Commission to
prosecute erring officers through the courts of Law.
6. Establish a very effective online and mobile phone based
whistle-blower platform that allows Zambians to report on
suspected corruption anonymously.
7. The Anti-Corruption Commission will be expected to
publish a report of all investigated and concluded cases
every quarter.
8. Law enforcement officers who are found to fail to apply the
law correctly must be liable to prosecution. If acting under

- 60 -
 instructions, the superior officer must be liable for the
same offence.
9. A fast-track court system must be established to ensure
corruption cases are concluded within 3 months from the
date of plea. Government will have the legal right to recover
stolen funds by confiscating personal property including
pension contributions.
10. The public protector must be appointed by the public
from the list of 5 qualified Zambians through Parliament
and the office sufficiently funded.

Constitutional and Judicial Reforms

I believe it is a generally agreed stand view that our current

constitution requires extensive review. I plan to push a very pro-
active constitutional review process as opposed to the current
politicised one. Politicians, civil society and all other stake
holders have got a very good idea of what kind of constitution
Zambia needs. To start with, our citizens have already made
enough submissions to date towards the constitutional review
process. There really is no need for the merry-go-round approach
we are subjecting the Zambian citizens to. All what is required is
the setting up of a specialised team of lawyers to sit down and
draft a reviewed constitution based on what we all know
Zambians want. The draft will then be presented for comments
by the citizens of Zambia for further refinement. With serious
political-will, in under a year, we can have a decent constitution
in place.

Judicial Reforms

One of the key pillars in the governance eco-system is a credible

Judiciary. To enhance good governance, Zambia’s judicial system
needs to be reviewed as a precursor to reforms. There are a
number of areas where our judicial system can do with some
improvement. I will particularly point out the following:

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1. The quality of any judicial system is determined by the
quality of the personnel running the judiciary. To this end,
I am of the view that the process through which judges and
magistrates are appointed and assessed needs to be
overhauled. Changes are required to ensure the judiciary
assimilates and retains our best experienced men and
women to assume positions at the bench. Thereafter,
regular training for our men and women at the bench will
be vital.
2. Court cases take too long in Zambia. They say justice
delayed is justice denied. Delay in disposing off cases is
one of the biggest compromises and injustices in our
current justice system. My proposal is that there should be
established time limit guidelines for the disposing off of all
cases. In all fairness, no case should go beyond a year!
3. As part of performance management, Judges and
Magistrates will be assessed in terms of how many cases
they are able to offload in each year.
4. Training of the Judiciary in how to handle specialised cases
will also be vital. There will be judges and magistrates
trained and specialised in critical areas such as corruption.
5. To enhance efficiency, the establishment of specialised
courts to handle cases to do with public procurement,
corruption, family matters, public procurement and the
like will be necessary.
6. For easy access to justice, we must ensure that provincial
High Court infrastructure is established and staff assigned
to operate them. Job creation will be a bi-product here.
7. There is need for specialised training for prosecutors to
equip them to prosecute and investigate cases of a
specialised nature such as corruption, fraud, money
laundering, public procurement and forgeries.
8. Adequate funding for the Judiciary will be a must at all
times.

- 62 -
A professional and well-funded police service

The police service is a vital department in the maintenance of

law and order. In all cases, a poorly managed, compromised and
under-resourced Police Service results in deterioration of the rule
of law. When a country has a compromised Police Service,
criminals get away with crimes whilst victims of crime have very
little recourse to the law. In a nutshell, you end up with a
situation where criminals get stronger and better protected by
the police service than law abiding citizens. Corrupt individuals,
whose activities are counter-productive to the development of the
nation, find refuge and protection from the Police Service and
politicians.

Over the years, our police service has been abused by politicians
and has been the foremost tool used to perpetrate selective
justice and breakdown of the rule of law. This is mainly due to
the fact that the Police Command is appointed and controlled by
politicians. In addition, the Police Service has over time,
deteriorated in their efficiency and effectiveness due to
insufficient funding. It is now common knowledge that our police
men often times struggle to report to several crime scenes due to
lack of resources. In a lot of cases, it is not uncommon for
victims of crime to be expected to provide transport or fuel for
our police officers to go and do their job. In most cases,
investigations are substituted with confessions pounded out of
suspects.

I am fully aware that the majority of our police officers are

committed citizens who genuinely want to serve their country
but are being let down by the conduct of politicians. Politicians
have literally tainted the reputation of our men and women in
uniform by putting them in awkward situations that force them
to act in a biased manner.

- 63 -
To put Zambia back on track with regards to the rule of law and
national security, immediate steps need to be taken in reforming
our police service. Some proposed steps are as follows:

1. The syllabus for police training must be revised in line with

modern policing demands.
2. Recruitment criteria for police officers must be reviewed to
ensure only the best of our sons and daughters are
absorbed in this noble profession. This will be done from all
provinces.
3. Reorient the police command and officers on the
importance of a professional and unbiased police service to
the nation.
4. Demand and insist on a professional police service
5. Adequately finance the police service to ensure efficiency
and effectiveness by providing all logistical support.
6. Fund and resource the rejuvenation of a world class
investigative wing in the police service.
7. Establish a legal advice department in the police command
to which Police Station Commanders will seek legal advice
before undertaking questionable instructions from
politicians.
8. Senior police officers who are found to have instructed
junior officers to carry-out illegal activities must be
disciplined if found wanting administratively or by the
judiciary.
9. Discipline must be the cornerstone of policing.

Eliminating Lawless Political Cadres

Over the years, Zambian politicians have encouraged an

unfortunate culture of lawlessness and irresponsible political
cadres. To achieve various political ends, politicians from the
ruling and main opposition parties are hiring and using poor
unemployed youths to engage in illegal activities most of which
involve intimidation and violence against other citizens who are
perceived as political opponents. Because this suits them, our
- 64 -
politicians have decided to be blind to the fact that they are
building a culture of impunity and disrespect for the law and
constitution of our country. They are oblivious to the fact that by
funding and protecting our youths to engage in politically
motivated criminal activities, a foundation is being laid for a
nation that has no respect for the rule of law or elders. In reality,
selfish and short-sighted politicians have greatly compromised
the security of our nation by encouraging this lawlessness. What
they do not seem to realise is that they have created a double
edged sword which can cut both ways as these same youths can
be used against these same politicians by other politicians. This
is a time bomb that we need to deactivate before it is too late.

A very unfortunate and annoying thing is that cadres have been

allowed to roam free and have taken over the running of vital
departments of local councils to the extent of paralysing the
work of councils. Very evident cases can be seen in how cadres
have usurped powers of running some markets and bus stations
to the extent that revenue collection and service delivery have
been seriously compromised in our main cities around the
country.

Anyone who understands governance knows that the prevalence

of unruly cadres and political violence starts and ends with the
government in power. A government in power has the mandate,
authority and resources to enforce law and order and put to an
end politically motivated crimes and lawlessness. For Zambia to
have seen an increase and entrenchment of political violence and
intimidation, the responsibility lies squarely on the people
running government at any particular time. There cannot be any
excuse on this one- a ruling party that fails to deal with cadre
based violence and intimidation is a security threat to the entire
nation of Zambia and should be held responsible accordingly.

Very few of our youths willingly and in their right minds want to
go and engage in violent activities against their fellow citizens.
Many of them are being motivated by a desire to make a living
- 65 -
and nothing else. My observation is that when irresponsible
politicians fail to empower our youths, they turn a blind eye
when our youths turn to the markets, bus stations and councils
to help themselves to public resources. No law supports this!!

In my assessment, dealing with the prevalence of lawless cadres

is one of the easiest things. If anything, it would take as little as
one month to deal with this and bring sanity in our markets and
bus stations. But because I interact with our young people
operating at markets and stations, I have come to realise that
most of them are not criminals but merely looking for means to
earn a living. Government therefore must take the responsibility
of first empowering these young people with jobs and businesses
for them to be able to earn a living and stop being used as
instruments of violence and lawlessness. The truth is it is very
possible to empower each and every one of our young people
illegally operating at bus stations and markets as political
cadres. Some of these young people can even be incorporated as
council workers working from the same markets and bus
stations.

I am committed to ensuring that this is implemented.

- 66 -
- 67 -
 FOUR
THE JOURNEY TO 5 MILLION JOBS

- 68 -
 “Zambia remains one of Africa‟s youngest countries
by median age. Over the next two generations,
demography will move in Zambia‟s favor as the
dependency ratio falls. But this fall in dependency
will only be an asset if Zambia‟s economy can
generate faster growth of jobs with higher
productivity. According to the UN‟s mid-range
population projections, at least 375,000 young people
on average will enter the workforce each year to
2030. Between 2030 and 2050 this average number
doubles to 747,000 jobs per year, just to keep the
present-day rates of labor force participation and
employment fixed.”
-World Bank Group 201726

26
World Bank Group, Jobs Diagnostics Zambia, 2017
- 69 -
I have come to fully appreciate that the cornerstone of national
prosperity and progress is work. The more Zambians we can
deploy to productive activities, the more wealth our nation will
generate and the wealthier our people will be. Our nation stands
to benefit more if we were to get every available Zambian to
engage in productive activities. For me, it is no longer acceptable
that over 60% of our people are living in poverty and are
suffering yet we have over 4 million Zambians who are willing to
work but are unable to find suitable employment! In fact, I am
pleasantly surprised to note that just by ensuring all our able
bodied citizens are in productive employment, we can resolve
80% of our economic and social challenges as a nation!
Zambians working in productive jobs will earn better incomes;
afford better housing, health, education services and better
livelihoods in general with very little government intervention!

It should interest you to know that if we were to get the, close to

4 million Zambians, currently seeking employment, to work in
jobs at productivity levels of even as low as $10,000 per annum,
they would directly add $40 billion dollars to our GDP!
Additionally, if you were taxing 762,000 workers at an average
rate of 25% in order to raise $4 billion from PAYE and other
taxes, you can afford to tax 5 million workers at the rate of 10%
to raise similar amount of revenue if not much more! This is
simply due to the increased tax base of 5 million workers as
compared to the initial 762,000 formal workers.

We are currently crying about the ballooning national debt which

is choking the people of Zambia. The most effective and decisive
way we can attend to this debt is by increasing government
revenues to pay off the debt. The most effective way to increase
government revenue, without burdening citizens, is by increasing
productivity and the numbers of our people who are formally
employed. This increases the tax base and ultimately
government revenues.

- 70 -
From the year 2011 when the PF took over government, we have
seen our Kwacha dropping in value against the dollar from K5 to
a dollar27 to K12 to a dollar as at 2nd December, 201828. This is
based on rebased Kwacha. This represents a fall in value of
140%. Again, the only sustainable way we can strengthen our
Kwacha is by increasing production and exports through
increased employment in our country. Increased production will
also contribute to the reduction of imports.

The cost of living, according to JCTR, has been steadily rising in

Zambia. In August 2011 the basic needs food basket for a family
of 6 was K2,923.0029 (in Kwacha rebased). By September, 2018,
a family of 5 in Lusaka required K5,356 to meet basic nutritional
needs30. If we had more Zambians producing goat meat, beef,
fish, mealie-meal, rice, potatoes and other basic food stuffs, the
prices of these food stuffs would reduce significantly thereby
reducing the cost of the basic food basket for a family of five. By
engaging more Zambians to work in food production and
processing, prices of food would reduce.

All in all, just by finding things to do for our close to 4 million

available Zambians, the following benefits would immediately
accrue:

1. Zambians would earn better incomes to be able to afford

better livelihoods and quality of life.
2. Prices of food and cost of living would reduce.
3. Zambians would afford better housing, food, education and
health on their own and poverty would drop in the country.
4. Youth delinquency and crime would reduce.
5. Kwacha rate against the dollar would improve.
6. Taxes can be reduced due to increased tax base.
7. Government would have increased capacity to repay debts
due to increased tax revenues.

27
https://www.exchangerates.org.uk/ZMK-USD-31_12_2011-exchange-rate-history.html
28
https://www.exchange-rates.org/history/ZMW/USD/T
29
JCTR, Basic needs basket Lusaka, August 2011
30
JCTR, Basic needs basket for Lusaka, September, 2018
- 71 -
Due to the importance of employment, our foremost strategic
focus for Zambia is to direct the most efforts and resources
towards getting more and more Zambians to work. And when I
say work, I am referring to quality, highly productive, secure and
pensionable jobs. I am talking about formal jobs that pay decent
salaries. It is possible to organise our economy in such a way
that the majority of our working people get decent incomes. The
secret lies in deploying our workers into activities in which they
can create sufficient value to justify decent salaries. The logic is,
if a single farm worker can create monthly value of K10,000 after
all costs and expenses, why would it be difficult to pay such a
farm worker a monthly salary of K5,000? As far as I am
concerned, if we rearranged our economy to focus on highly
productive activities, it is possible to have K5,000 as our
national minimum wage without any stress!

If the only thing I was to contribute to my country was to get all

the 4 million Zambians currently seeking decent employment to
work, I would still be a very proud Zambian! I would have set the
foundation for Zambia’s prosperity and transformation. What I
desire to achieve as my main contribution to my country is to be
the person who contributed the most towards job creation for the
people of Zambia. I would want to be remembered as the person
who ensured that every young Zambian was either at school or
at work.

My team and I have invested and continue to invest considerable

time and resources in formulating strategies and policies that
would deliver the most jobs at the fastest rate Zambia has ever
seen. I am certain that what I will deliberate on is by far, the
most practical job and wealth creation agenda to be put on the
table by any Zambian leader so far.

The concern that might easily arise in the minds of some

Zambians is that these ideas might be stolen or hijacked by
some opportunistic politicians. We are fully aware of the
desperate lack of solid ideas among our politicians, however, we
- 72 -
have realised that having an idea is one thing, but having the
passion and political will to pursue the idea is entirely another.
Therefore, as much as others might want to run with these
ideas, in the absence of the passion and convictions we possess
over these ideas, nothing much can be achieved. If however,
some dedicated Zambians were to adopt and religiously
implement some of these ideas for the good of our great nation
Zambia, we would be just as delighted! This is about the well-
being of Zambians after all.

I am passionate about seeing all capable Zambians, regardless of

whether they have disabilities or not, employed and contributing
to our country’s economy. I am ready and resolved to put in
sweat and blood to get Zambians to work and earning decent
salaries. For this reason, a larger portion of this book has gone
to demonstrating how we will create millions of jobs for our
citizens in order to transform Zambia’s economy.

I am alive to the fact that Zambians have been disappointed

before by politicians who promised to create millions of jobs. This
is the reason I have taken the time to put on the table very
practical job creation strategies. This is why when I say we can
create 500,000 every year, I have gone on to detail how. This is
summarised in table 36 on page 252. Most politicians never say
how because frankly, they have never bothered to think about
how.

With the argument for increased employment having been made,

the question that remains is: what are we going to give Zambians
to do so that they can be productively engaged and be able to
contribute to personal and national wealth creation? We have
identified 8 key approaches to ensuring we create a minimum of
500,000 new jobs for Zambians every year. Our target is to
directly create 5 million new jobs within 10 years. In our
calculations, we are not including the jobs that will be created by
other actors such as investors and private individuals. Simply
meaning there will be many more jobs created than our targeted
- 73 -
500,000 jobs per year. The following approaches are as listed
below and will be discussed in each subsequent chapter:

1. Restructuring Government Procurement towards job

creation.
2. Ward Based Rapid Development Strategy.
3. A quality house for every Zambian Family.
4. Establishment of Production cities & towns.
5. Transforming the Education and Health sectors.
6. Transforming the Agriculture sector.
7. Implementation of the Local Church Business Development
concept.
8. Transforming the energy sector.

What we noted is that the majority of our job creation strategies

do not even require any extravagant special external funds and
can actually be fully implemented using budget levels that are
not so different from the current ones! Except for the Ward
Based Development program and the Local Church Business
Development programs, we can create serious amounts of jobs
with the similar budgetary allocations we have been giving to
Economic Affairs, Education and Health sectors. The difference
will be in spending priorities and discipline. This will become
very clear as we explore each of our key job creation strategies.

- 74 -
- 75 -
 FIVE
RESTRUCTURING & TRANSFORMING
GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT FOR
JOB & WEALTH CREATION

- 76 -
 “ Zambia like many other countries is losing a lot of
tax payers‟ money due to bid rigging (i.e. collusive
tendering and corruption). The Zambian Government
has a lot of laws that purport to work for the benefit
of streamlining the procurement processes… yet every
year the Auditor General‟s Report tells a different
story”31
-KBF

31
Kelvin Fube Bwalya, LLM Thesis UNILUS. Analyzing the effects of bid rigging and corruption on
the procurement process government (Ministry of health and Roads Development Agency)-2018
- 77 -
It has been generally observed that as much as a third of
government expenditure or budget gets to be spent through the
government procurement system. I came across this information
during my Masters-degree studies in which I majored in the
procurement sector. From a close look at the proposed 2019
budget which stands at $8.6 billion, as much as $2.8 billion will
be channelled through various government procurement
systems. The purchase of medicines, furniture, vehicles,
construction services, office supplies, food and so many other
state requirements will be acquired by the government through
the procurement system. Infrastructure such as roads, clinics,
schools e.t.c. is also part of this expenditure.

The contention with the current procurement system is that it is

skewed in favour of a few well connected individuals thereby
entrenching serious inequalities in wealth distribution. More
discomforting is the fact that we have allowed our procurement
system to be abused to such an extent that we can accept
something that should ordinarily cost us $11 million to cost us
$42 million with some of our citizens not feeling any shame
about it! Another bone of contention is that the current
procurement set-up gives better advantage to foreign bidders.

In Zambia, we have a scenario where about 51% of the national

income is in the hands of only 10% of people partly as a result of
this anomaly. I must highlight that unfortunately, a significant
portion of this 10% are not even indigenous Zambians. It is
estimated that the lower 50% of Zambians enjoy only 21% of the
national income32. To say the least, whatever the explanation for
this trend, this is not an ideal situation and drastic steps are
required to change the status quo.

Whether you look at it from an economic or moral point of view,

it is better for wealth to be more widely spread among the
population than otherwise. To put my point across, let’s compare
the economic impact of a 5 member family earning K1million
32
International Growth Centre, Growth and Income Inequality in Zambia, 2017
- 78 -
every month vs the impact of one hundred 5 member families
each earning an income of K10,000 monthly. Note that a
hundred families each earning K10,000 also have a combined
total income of K1 million at their disposal.

Expenditure Monthly # Total

estimate expenditure
1 Food & 10,000 1 10,000
groceries
2 Clothes 10,000 1 10,000
3 Fuel 10,000 1 10,000
4 Entertainment 10,000 1 10,000
5 Vehicle 10,000 1 10,000
maintenance
6 School fees 30,000 1 30,000
7 Servants 10,000 1 10,000
8 Property 10,000 1 10,000
maintenance
9
TOTALS 100,000 100,000
Table 3: estimated monthly expenditure of one family earning K1 million.

Expenditure Monthly # Total

estimate expenditure
1 Food & groceries 3,500 100 350,000
2 Clothes 500 100 50,000
3 Fuel 1,000 100 100,000
4 Entertainment 500 100 50,000
5 Vehicle 500 100 50,000
maintenance
6 School fees 1,500 100 150,000
7 Servants 1,000 100 100,000
8 Property 500 100 50,000
maintenance
TOTALS 9,000 900,000
Table 4: Estimated expenditure of 100 families earning K10,000 each

From the two tables, the hundred families out-spent the

K1million earning family almost by 9 times spending K900,000
compared to K100,000. Meaning that although the 100 families

- 79 -
also earned a combined total of K1 million, they spent and
injected more money into the economy than one family earning
K1 million. This means they supported more businesses and jobs
than the single family earning K1million.

The fact is this: no matter how much money a single person or

family can earn, he can only eat so much food, live in so many
houses, hire so many servants, drive so many cars and put on so
many clothes. An economy benefits substantially more when
more families have cash-flow than when there is only a few very
rich families with cash-flow.

For this reason, it is the duty of a responsible government to

aggressively pursue deliberate policies that promote wider
participation of citizens in supplying services and products in
the economy. This will ensure more citizens generate income
through business services and secure the buying power to play a
positive role in the economy. To this end, we must pursue the
following decisive steps to ensure the public procurement system
begin to benefit more people and create more jobs:

1. 90% of public procurement in terms of value must be

strictly reserved for Zambian citizen controlled companies.
2. 50% of procurement must be exclusively reserved for local
companies owned by Zambians below the age of 40years.
3. 25% of procurement should be reserved for companies
owned or controlled by female Zambian entrepreneurs.
4. 5% of procurement must be reserved for Zambian
entrepreneurs with disabilities.
5. Priority must be given to local based companies for supply
of services for particular localities. For example if there is a
tender for the construction of a school in Kasama, first
priority, must be given to contractors based in Kasama.
Determination of a local company relative to a place should
entail that the shareholders reside in the particular
location, have offices and 80% of their workers reside in
that particular locality.
- 80 -
 6. Government should start issuing guarantees to banks for
local companies that would need to borrow money in order
to offer services to the government.
7. Government must start paying suppliers within a
maximum period of 60 days from the date of invoicing.

It is my assessment that just by restructuring the government

procurement system, base for directly supporting 100,000 to
200,000 jobs outside the civil service and public companies will
be created. What more is that these jobs will now be spread out
across the country as opposed to the current concentration
around the capital city and the Copperbelt Province. On a
cumulative basis, I project that from the implementation of this
policy, our economy will begin generating an average of 30,000
new jobs every year.

Price Bench Marking Tendering Approach

Zambia has witnessed an era of blatant inflating of tender prices

to an extent never witnessed before. The following table gives a
few examples of government deals that were, without doubt,
highly exaggerated in terms of price.
Project Purchase Price Estimated Excess
Fair value Difference
1 Purchase of 42 fire $42 million $10.5 million $31.5 million
tenders
2 Digital migration $273 million $144 million $129 million
3 Michael Chilufya Sata $4.5 $1 million $3.5 million
Toll Gate
4 KK International $375 million $300 million $75 million
Airport
5 Lusaka Ndola Dual $1.2 billion $500 million $700 million
carriage way
7 Copperbelt C400 $418 million $300million $118 million
Roads Project
8 Ndola airport $395 million $300 million $95 million
9 Security Wings $275 million $200 million $75 million
Housing Project
10 Lusaka L400 Roads $300 million $200 million $100 million
project
Total $3.28 billion $1.95 billion $1.33 billion
Table 5: List of suspected highly inflated projects.

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Through these reckless, criminal and unpatriotic practices, the
people of Zambia have lost and continue losing billions of dollars
every year and we cannot afford to allow such to continue and
expect our country to progress. It is therefore justifiable when
sentiments are expressed by the common man that some
Zambians in the current government will, one day, need to
account for this highly unpatriotic conduct.

To curtail these crimes and abuses in the procurement system,

we must pursue price bench-marking before floating and
awarding tenders. By bench-marking prices, procurement
personnel will be tasked to shop around for a fair price in the
market to have a good idea of how much certain services and
goods cost in the market. Procurement staff will thereafter invite
bidders for tenders with a policy that bids that exceed certain
amounts will not be entertained in order to save the country’s
valuable public resources.

Some immediate measures that we need to take in our

government procurement systems include the following:

1. Correct and improve the prevention/detection systems in

the tendering, evaluating and awarding of ALL public
tenders.
2. Keep detailed records of all suspicious bidders with a view
of investigating bid rigging or corruption.
3. Improve and maintain constant internal consultations with
the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
before award of all suspiciously bided tenders.
4. Prosecute and black list erring firms.

This we must do! I am so determined to restructure Zambia’s

procurement systems that amending the necessary laws and
regulations will be a priority.

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- 83 -
 SIX
RAPID IMPACT, WARD BASED
DEVELOPMENT

- 84 -
“Every Country needs public infrastructure to deliver
basic services and goods to its citizens, but to deliver
this, a people‟s mind-set must be drastically
transformed by knowledge and vital information”
-KBF

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One of the most pronounced realities in Zambia is that
development is not benefitting Zambians in an equitable manner.
Ordinarily, some portions of Zambia see very little or even no
development at all. This is not acceptable and must be reversed
instantly. Shangombo, Zambezi, Lukulu, Ikelenge, Nakonde,
Vubwi and other far flanked border areas are part of Zambia but
see very little development.

I am of a strong view that one of the ways in which we can

advance a uniform national development and equitable
distribution of our national resources is to ensure sufficient
resources are deployed to all corners of this country through
wards and constituencies. Because currently, national
development expenditure is overly centralised, an imbalanced
deployment of national resources is very apparent. More
resources seem to benefit certain corners of the country than the
rest. The end result is, certain parts of our country see more
development, have more business and employment opportunities
created than others.

To counter this, we must implement the following policy changes:

1. That instead of the current K1.4 million annual

constituency fund, an annual fund of K1 million be
allocated to each ward in Zambia. As the economy expands,
this fund must be increased to K5 million per ward.
2. That each ward and therefore, each constituency, should
through a participatory method, assess their unique
developmental needs and prioritize these needs through 5
years’ development plans.
3. That the fund be deployed with guidance such that 20% is
allocated to a revolving business empowerment fund for
youths.
4. That the remaining 80% be deployed to areas with the most
impact and benefits to the ward. Provision of clean water,
bridges, grading of roads, health services and supporting
education should rank high in priority.
- 86 -
 5. That contracts for all projects must be awarded only to
residents of each particular ward.
6. That every MP be required by law to attend specific ward
development and oversight meetings.

It is under this agenda that we must pursue that every Zambian

has access to clean drinking water within a distance of 200
metres and that every Zambian child learns from a decent
classroom. I am of the view that this approach will result in the
following:

1. Meaningful development will begin to simultaneously reach

all corners of this country very rapidly.
2. Communities will influence what projects get implemented
according to real needs on the ground.
3. Local communities will benefit from government resources
directly.
4. Local business will be stimulated as funds will be spent at a
local community level with bias to giving business and
contracts to locals.
5. Projects will be delivered at reduced prices due to the fact
that they will be done by locals with locally supplied
materials.

What you should note is that K1 million or $100,000 per ward is

equal to K1.78 billion or $178 million annually based on a total
of 1,780 wards. This is a mere 2% of Zambia’s current annual
budget! This amount would, however, leave a nationwide
footprint in terms of positive development impact. The
implication at constituency level is that a constituency that has
10 wards will now receive K10 million instead of the current K1.4
million development fund.

The 2019 budget allocated about $24.9 million as constituency

development fund (CDF), meaning I am proposing we significantly
increase this portion in the budget. What will be worth noting is
that if government could spend $42 million on purchasing fire

- 87 -
tenders, $ 30 million to renovate Mulungushi International
Conference Centre and a reported $140 million to purchase 5
airplanes to be used by a few individuals, surely spending $178
million on programs that will directly benefit 17 million Zambians
is better value for money any day! It is all about focus and
necessary political will.

As our GDP and government revenues grow, this amount must

gradually be increased from $100,000 to $500,000 per ward. At
$500,000 by 1780 wards, we are looking at a total investment of
$890 million. This investment is strategically vital as it achieves
the dual roles of ensuring nation-wide development accompanied
by increased employment for Zambians across the country.

To implement this type of national development approach,

communities at ward level will need to be involved in their
development. It means aspiring councillors will need to be
intimately in tune with the challenges and needs of their people
and be able to formulate development agendas which closely
respond to these needs.

To ensure government resources fully benefit residents of a given

locality, all contracts should be awarded to businesses resident
in that particular locality. In a case where, a particular ward does
not seem to have a suitable contractor to execute a particular
project, the next contractor that shall be eligible will be a
contractor within the same constituency. This contractor will
however, be required to employ 60% of his workforce from the
ward in question. For a contractor to be considered resident in a
given ward or constituency, they will need to have offices in that
particular ward/constituency and 80% of their employees should
be residents of the ward/constituency in question.

All materials should be purchased from within the ward. Where

materials are not available in a ward, the constituency will be the
next level of consideration. It means if a construction project is
going on in a ward, bricks, sand, doors, frames, roofing materials

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and other materials shall be purchased from suppliers within the
ward.

Under this program, all projects shall be executed strictly by local

citizens and no project or supply contract should be carried out
by any foreign owned company as a major contractor. Foreigners
shall be welcome as consultants and specialists offering specific
services when such services cannot be offered by any Zambian.

A ward should approach development by looking at the following

priority grading:

Development focus Example Grade

areas
1 Problem/challenges Sanitation/lack 1
of water
Lack of
Bridges/
access roads
2 Improvements Road 2
maintenance,
street lighting
3 Investments Skills Training 3
for youths
Table: 6

Development Plans should be developed at a ward level but

supervised at the constituency level. Procurement should be
supervised and audited at the constituency level. The role of an
MP in such a set-up is to oversee and track development of all
wards in his or her constituency.

A ward should be allowed to invest in a select list of public good

revenue generating ventures to contribute to the sustenance of
its programs. For example, a ward can establish a market or a
community farm.

The overall impact of this development approach is the following:

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 1. $178 million will be directly injected into local citizen
owned businesses annually.
2. From each ward allocation, an estimated 30 jobs per ward
would be supported annually. At 1,780 wards, that gives
us 53,400 new jobs.
3. There will be youth and women business empowerment
going on in every ward countrywide every year.

Education, health and large scale infrastructure should remain

the responsibility of central government. Training must be
carried out to educate civic leaders on ward development plan
preparation, implementation and monitoring. Anti- corruption
sensitization must also be part of the training.

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- 91 -
 SEVEN
A HOUSE FOR EVERY ZAMBIAN
FAMILY

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“I have been blessed with a successful career, a good
home and family. But if you knew anything about my
background, I am not from a rich family. As a child,
my family went through hardships. At one time, with
my father in jail, my mother, my siblings and I had no
home”
-KBF

- 93 -
Owning a house is one of the most fundamental and basic needs
for any family. Unfortunately, in our country, the majority of our
citizens live in substandard housing. In Lusaka, for example, it
is estimated that 60% of the population live in the slums that are
dotted around the capital city33. A significant portion of our
citizens are still living in rented houses and spending significant
portions of their incomes on rentals. It has been widely
determined that Zambia needs 100,000 new housing units every
year for the next 10 years in order to bridge the current gap in
terms of quality housing needs.

What is cardinal to note is that when a family owns their house,

the following important benefits kick in:

1. The net-worth or wealth of a family is significantly boosted

as a house is a valuable asset.
2. The family will have more of their income available to
spend on other demands other than on rentals.
3. A family with their own house is more secure as they do
not risk eviction in the event that they have temporary
challenges with income.
4. Family stability is entrenched.

What we have noticed is that generally, Zambians have come to

appreciate the importance of owning their own houses and are
hungry to secure a plot on which to build. Currently, Zambians
in urban centres are spending between K30,000 to K250,000
just to secure a plot on which to build their homes. Relatively
rural district councils such as Kasama, Zambezi and Mongu are
selling council plots for as much as K15,000 and Zambians are
eagerly buying these plots! The hunger for residential plots is
nothing but a confirmation of the already reported deficit in
decent housing in the country coupled with the importance of
shelter to a human being.

33
Center for Affordable Housing Finance Africa. Challenges of Affordable Housing Delivery in Zambia
- 94 -
Using the Construction Sector as an Engine for Jobs & Wealth
Creation.

From a very conservative perspective, constructing 100,000

decent housing units is worth not less than $2 billion. This is at
an average construction cost of $20,000 per house. This figure
has potential to comfortably absorb up to 100,000 permanent
jobs annually at a productivity level of $20,000 per annum! A
deliberate policy that specifically encourages construction and
home ownership in Zambia will have a huge social and economic
impact on our country.

For this reason, we must pursue policies that will deliberately

stimulate and support the construction of decent houses for our
citizens. To start with, we must pursue an agenda and a strategy
that aims at ensuring every Zambian family owns a decent home
as opposed to renting. As a policy and strategy direction, I
propose we pursue the following as a country:

1. Design „500 housing units‟ settlements. These are going to

be integrated settlements designed with all basic services
such as shops, schools, a health centre and sports
facilities.
2. Identify locations for and create 200 of such settlements
across the country (200 x 500 plots =100,000 plots) every
year. Each Constituency should be allocated at least one of
these housing settlements every year.
3. Build paved roads, water reticulation, sewer systems,
schools and clinics in these settlements.
4. Sell plots to Zambians at affordable prices and on flexible
long term payment arrangements.
5. Run a campaign to promote home ownership across the
country in both urban and rural areas.
6. Identify and partner with private companies and
organisations with the capacity to finance and construct
affordable housing for those low income Zambians who

- 95 -
 can’t afford to build on their own. These houses will be sold
on long term flexible payment terms.
7. Leverage organisations such as NAPSA and ZNBS to make
this agenda a reality.

The following figure depicts the proposed settlement.

SECTION LAY-OUT

15 Housing units 10 Housing units

20 100 flats 50
Housing units

library
5 5 5 10 sports complex 10 5

School
Shops
1km

5 5 5 10 10 5
Clinic Churches

50 100
5 5 5 10 flats flats 10 5

5 5 5 10 5 5 5 5 10 5

1km

Figure 2: Proposed „500 housing units‟ settlement.

Creating this kind of capacity will empower a lot of our people,

boost the construction sector and create jobs rapidly. After
- 96 -
construction, each settlement is guaranteed to eventually create
permanent jobs as detailed in the next table:

Key features/units Employment

1 500 Housing units
2 School 50
3 Sports club 20
4 Mini shopping complex 24
5 Library 4
6 Park/open space 2
7 2 Churches 8
8 Health Centre 10
9 Maintenance unit 4
10 Security 5

Totals 127

GDP $3,050,000

Table 7: Permanent jobs after building of the 500 housing units settlement

Private Public Partnership models

One innovative way of rolling-out this program is to give PPP

tenders to construction or development companies. The terms of
the partnership could be as follows:

1. Development Company to build roads, sewer and water

systems at own cost.
2. Development Company to be the only supplier of basic
building materials in the settlement area.
3. Development Company to offer construction services to
potential home owners in the particular settlement.
4. Development Company to sell residential plots to the public
to recover costs and earn a profit.
5. Development Company to reserve the rights to be the only
maintenance company in the settlement and offer such
services as refuse collection at a fee.

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 6. Development Company to reserve the rights to build and
own the mini shopping complex in the settlement.
7. Government to finance the building of the school and
health centre together with houses for teachers and health
workers in each settlement. Development Company to be
the contractor for this development.
8. Local contractors will be the preferred contractors for these
developments.
9. Government will monitor and supervise construction
contracts and issuance of certificates and tittles. At all
times, the value of affordable houses will be agreed with
government for the benefit of poor citizens.

If for argument’s sake, we had 200 local

construction/development companies each with 100 workers
working on each site, that’s already 20,000 guaranteed jobs (200
settlements x 100 workers). 127 permanent jobs x 200
settlements will produce another 25,400 jobs. When you
consider other support construction sector activities such as
quarrying and manufacturer of various construction materials,
another 5,000 jobs will be assured.

Making affordable Housing a Reality.

So much gets said about affordable housing and yet so little has
been seen in this area. This is regardless of the fact that building
technologies have rapidly advanced to make it possible for a
house to be completed within 48hours at significantly reduced
cost. When Zambians hear the phrase, ‘affordable housing’,
many immediately assume that what are being discussed are
pre-fab houses. Building technologies have evolved so much that
it is now possible to construct 600 housing units made of proper
concrete walls in 30 days with a team of 100 builders! We intend
to adopt these building technologies to ensure that those citizens
who do not have the resources to finance the complete
construction of their homes can still own an affordable home on
flexible payment terms.
- 98 -
From some of the construction technologies I have so far had a
chance to assess, it is possible to construct a fairly decent 3
Bedroomed house at a cost of K100,000. We would need to
engage financiers and development companies to build affordable
houses in bulk and offer them to new graduates, civil servants,
young couples and low income families. Our citizens will then be
paying between K1,500 and K3,000 monthly for a period of 5 to
10 years to own a house. These monthly instalments have
already factored in interest payment!

We need to locate these mass housing projects in all

Constituencies and the newly created districts around Zambia.
This should be regardless of whether a constituency belongs to
the opposition or the ruling party. Decent housing must become
a reality for all Zambians.

- 99 -
 EIGHT
CREATION OF PRODUCTION ZONES

- 100 -
 “I believe today our Zambian Engineers More than
ever before are ready, willing and able, if given a
chance, to prove themselves in our nation‟s building”
-KBF

- 101 -
RAPID AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIALISATION AGENDA

When it comes to getting Zambians to work, the question that we

are still dealing with is: what will the millions of Zambians we
want to give jobs be doing exactly? As part of the answer to this
question and as part of our rapid industrialisation strategy, I am
convinced that as a nation we must resolve to pursue the
creation of production cities. Basically, these are production
zones. According to our strategy, production cities will give us
the most in terms of employment numbers and improved
productivity.

Production cities or towns will simply be modern settlements

that will be designed, built and established around specific
anchor economic activities. We should plan to establish 3 such
settlements every year for 10 years such that each province will
host 3 of such settlements. Examples of Production cities and
towns are as detailed below:

1. Agri-city

An agri-city, according to our designs, will be a 30,000 hectares

settlement established around agriculture production and
processing. 20,000 hectares will be used for commercial
agriculture production of various crops whilst 10,000 hectares
will be set aside for residential and processing plants
establishment. An agri-city will be designed to accommodate
100,000 housing units, a minimum of 100,000 jobs and 20
university or training campuses.

For example, an agri-city could focus on producing grains, fruits,

vegetables, milk, poultry and other agro-produce in bulk. This
produce would then be processed into mealie-meal, animal feed,
snacks, fruit juice, cheese and many other products. These
products would then be sold within the city, all over Zambia and
outside Zambia.

- 102 -
The employees that will be working in the agricultural operations
and the processing plants will need services such as schools,
hospitals, shops, banks, sports facilities and many more. The
provision of these vital support services will in turn entail more
jobs being created.

FARM LAND maize & other cereals

Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb

1 2 3 4 5 6

Suburb Suburb
Fruit trees 7 8 Dairy farm
Horticulture Horticulture Feedlot
CBD airport
Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb
9 10 11 12 13 14
CBD

Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb Suburb

15 16 17 18 19 20

cotton

Figure 3: Schematic depiction of an Agri-city

Each Suburb is placed in such a way that it has access to the

farm land. In general, an agri-city will be developed with serious
consideration of preserving natural ecosystems and ensuring no
adverse impact affects the natural environment. This will be
done through the following practices;

1. Growing of trees
2. Maintaining natural plant cover and animal life in certain
areas.

- 103 -
 3. Incorporating and enhancing forest foods such as honey,
mushrooms, caterpillars, masuku, imfungo and intungulu
as part of the agriculture production.

We will pursue research to ensure the best commercial benefit is

extracted from some of our wild foods.

FARM LAND

Industries Industries Industries Industries

Section 1 Students Section 2 Section 3

Hos tel s university
A B C

University sports complex

Residential hospital

Section 4 Section 5 Section 6

Shopping Mall
D E F

Hotel

Section 7 Section 8 Section 9 Section 10

G H I J

Figure 4:An Agri-city suburb in more details

The shopping Mall will host office space and banking services.

- 104 -
 SECTION LAY-OUT

15 Housing units 10 Housing units

20 100 flats 50
Housing units

library
5 5 5 10 sports complex 10 5

School
Shops
1km

5 5 5 10 10 5
Clinic Churches

50 100
5 5 5 10 flats flats 10 5

5 5 5 10 5 5 5 5 10 5

1km

Figure 4: An Agri-city Section in more details

- 105 -
According to our tabulations, we are guaranteed to create the
following jobs in an Agri-city:

AGRI-CITY
Key Permanent
features/units Employment
1 20 suburbs 121,400
2 Office park 500
3 City Mgt 200
4 Construction 200
5 Retail Park 1,000
6 Hospitality 500
7 Investors 5,000
8 Airport 200
9 Warehousing 200
Totals 129,200
GDP $3,230,000,000
Table 8: Minimum jobs in an agri-city

A suburb will have jobs broken down as in the next table:

SUBURB
Key features/units Employment
1 5,000 housing units
2 10 Sections 3,820
3 University campus 300
4 University hospital 200
5 Sports Complex 50
6 Shopping mall 500
7 Hotel 100
8 Industrial Park 500
9 Agricultural unit 300
10 Utilities Company 100
11 City Mgt 50
12 Transport 50
13 Construction 100
Totals 6,070

GDP $151,750,000
Table 9: Break-down of jobs per suburb

- 106 -
A section will generate guaranteed jobs as detailed in table 10

SECTION
CALCULATIONS
Key features/units Employment
1 500 Housing units
2 School 50
3 sports club 20
4 Mini shopping 25
complex
5 Library 5
6 park/open space 2
7 2 Churches 8
8 Health Centre 10
9 Maintenance unit 8
10 Agriculture 250
11 Security 4
Totals 382

GDP $9,550,000
Table 10: Break-down of jobs in a section

The 129,200 jobs referred to as minimum possible in an agri-city

is the minimum guaranteed jobs. With the influx of other
investors and entrepreneurs, an additional 50,000 to 100,000
jobs is very possible.

Agri-cities vs Farm Blocks

An agri-city is essentially an improved version of the farm block

concept. An agri-city overrides all the major challenges that have
made the farm block idea redundant. Agri-cities deliver all the
objectives of the farm block idea plus much more. Whereas the
farm block is unclear and is waiting for non-existent investors, in
the agri-city idea, government in partnership with private sector,
leads the way and creates an eco-system that makes it possible
for ordinary citizens and investors to set up shop in the agri
cities. The reality is it is our people who desperately need jobs
and prosperity. We cannot therefore, leave this to chance and
whims of ‘investors’ but we need to take charge of our situation
to deliver jobs and a better economy. In this vein, government
- 107 -
will actively finance the establishment of fully fledged
agricultural, manufacturing, mining and commercial settlements
with all critical services such as schools, hospitals, shops and
sports facilities.

The agri-cities will be established in the locations already

identified and gazetted for farm block development around the
country. The locations are as detailed in the next figure 34.

In addition to the already identified areas for agriculture

development, more areas must be identified to ensure that at
least every province ends up with a minimum of 3 major
agriculture related cities or towns.

34
ZDA, Opportunities in agriculture
- 108 -
 2. Resort Fishing Towns

Zambia is reported to have an estimated deficit of 87,000 tons of

fish and is currently importing about 40,000 tons of fish
annually. Namibia and China supply most of this fish from their
oceans and fish farms. At $2.5 per Kg retail price, 40,000 tons of
fish is business worth $100 million dollars with the potential to
employ as much as 10,000 Zambians if this fish was produced in
Zambia! Some trade statistics peg Zambia’s fish imports in 2017
at $112 million.

With our abundant natural water bodies, we must set up towns

that are anchored around the fish farming industry. These have
to be towns with inbuilt capacity to produce thousands of tons of
fish per annum from fish farming. Using a combination of fish
ponds, dams and cages, these towns will have to employ the
latest technologies and practices to farming fish in bulk.

Lake

run way Hotel s fi s h fa rm fi s h fa rm fi s h fa rm Gra i ns &

a i rport ma l l uni vers i ty vegetabl es boa rdi ng
res i dence res i dence res i dence fa rm s chool
s ports l odges l i ght i ndus tri es
a ni ma l pa rk res i dence hos pi tal s tadi um res i dence res i dence res i dence
l i ves tock
Res ort l odges l odges l odges fa rm
l odges res i dence res i dence res i dence res i dence res i dence res i dence

Figure 6: Proposed layout of a resort fishing town

The Resort Fishing Towns will be new settlements with modern

infrastructure and facilities to attract the best skills from within
and outside Zambia.

- 109 -
Because water bodies easily form leisure and tourist sceneries,
the Resort Fishing Towns will be designed as resort and leisure
towns specifically targeted at the local and international tourist
markets. To this end, these towns will incorporate such
infrastructure and activities to attract tourism as follows:

1. Fenced game ranch

2. Play park
3. Water Sports
4. Annual International Sports Festival
5. Annual International Music Festival
6. Tourism & Hospitality Management University
7. Annual Food Festival
8. Annual Motor Rally
9. Conference Facilities
10. Airport

Though anchored around fish farming and tourism, these towns

will create jobs in other types of agricultural production,
processing, health, education, construction, entertainment and
many more. Table 11 gives a break-down of minimum direct jobs
to be created by a Resort Fishing Town.

- 110 -
 Major Commercial Units Employment Total
units per unit
1 Fish farms 4 250 1,000
2 Town MGT 1 100 100
3 Construction 2 50 100
4 Residential 10 101 1,010
settlements
5 Airport 1 50 50
6 Hospitality 1 200 200
7 Shopping Mall 1 300 300
8 Hospital 1 100 100
9 University campus 1 200 200
10 Play park 1 50 50
11 Animal park 1 20 20
12 Lodges/guest houses 10 10 100
13 Boarding school 1 200 200
14 stadium/sports 1 50 50
complex
15 Livestock farm 1 100 100
16 Sports/tour services 10 20 200
17 Civil Servants 1 220 220
Totals 4,000

GDP $100,000,000
Table 11: Break-down of minimum jobs in a resort fishing town

3. Livestock town

A trade deal for Zambia to supply 1million goats to Saudi Arabia

annually has been in the public domain for a while now 35.
Exports of 1 million goats represent significant economic and
employment potential that requires a serious kind of thinking at
government level. To date, apart from the usual political rhetoric
and posturing, there seem to be nothing practical on the ground
to indicate that our country is serious about this significant
opportunity.

My Team and I have gone ahead and put together a concept to

establish towns that will be anchored around livestock

35
Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries website.
- 111 -
production. From our deliberations, we have established that it
is even possible to produce the entire 1 million goats every year
from a single livestock based settlement!

A livestock town will be essentially a town designed to have

livestock farming as the main economic anchor. This will be a
town with all modern and essential infrastructure and facilities
for profitable livestock farming. To equal any modern town, the
livestock town will have modern shopping malls, schools,
hospitals, sports facilities, hotels and industries to attract the
best human resource from anywhere in the world.

Farming 1 2 3 4
community

5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24

25 26
Pasture land
27 28

29 30 31 32 33 34

35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46

47 48 49 50

Figure 7: Livestock Town basic layout

As depicted in figure 7, a Goat farming livestock town will be

divided into 50 farming communities each with capacity to keep
5,000 goats. Each farming community is positioned in such a
manner that it has access to the land. A single goat farming town
will carry a total of 250,000 goats (5,000 goats X 50 goat keeping

- 112 -
communities). This stock is sufficient to produce 1 million goats
for sale to the market every year.

Livestock towns will have state of the art meat processing and
packaging equipment together with veterinary services. They will
be towns with special animal disease control regimes. Livestock
towns will produce their own animal feeds.

This concept will be applicable for cattle and sheep keeping too.

Pasture land
GOAT KEEPING COMMUNITY LAYOUT

15 Housing units 10 Housing units

20 100 flats 50
Housing units

library
5 5 5 10 sports/recreation 10 5
complex
School
Shops
1km

5 5 5 10 10 5
Clinic Churches

50 100
5 5 5 10 flats flats 10 5

5 5 5 10 5 5 5 5 10 5

1km

Figure 8: Livestock town in more details

- 113 -
Table 12 details the minimum potential employment that can be
achieved in a Livestock Town.

GOAT KEEPING LIVESTOCK

TOWN
Major Commercial units Units Employment Total
per unit
1 20,000 housing units 1
2 Town MGT 1 200 200
3 Construction 2 100 200
4 Farming communities 50 273 13,650
5 Meat processing unit 1 200 200
6 Fruits & vegies processing 1 200 200
7 Animal feed manufacture 1 200 200
8 Hotels 5 50 250
9 Lodges 5 20 100
10 Airport 1 200 200
11 Utilities 2 50 100
12 University campus 5 300 1,500
13 Hospitals 5 200 1,000
14 Shopping malls 5 400 2,000
15 Grains farm 1 200 200
16 Packaging & branding 1 200 200
17 Construction 1 100 100
18 Land scaping 10 5 50
19 Office park 1 300 300
20 Leather works 1 200 200
21 Auto services 10 10 100
22 Milling company 1 200 200
23 Wood works shop 1 100 100
24 Engineering 5 20 100
25 Foot wear, bags, belts 2 100 200
26 Transport & logistics 5 20 100
27 Building materials 2 100 200
28 Bakery 5 20 100
29 Cosmetics 5 20 100
30 Printing 5 10 50
31 Civil servants & others 1 5,000 5,000
Investors
Totals 72 27,100
Table 12: Details of potential jobs in a livestock Town

- 114 -
Other proposed production Towns

Using the same concept, we must establish many more

production based settlements including:

4. Mining Towns

Mining towns will be new towns that will revolve around

mining as the anchor economic activity. Mining towns will be
in many ways just like our towns on the Copperbelt Province
that were built around copper mining. With substantial
mineral deposits spread all over the country, we will choose a
minimum of 10 sites on which to establish towns around
mining operations as a way of creating jobs and wealth.

Iron, coal, gemstone, limestone and other industrial minerals

mining are going to be strategic operations and will readily
form part of the mining towns out-fits.

Like the agri-cities and Livestock towns, Mining towns will be

fully-fledged towns with all major economic activities.
Projected jobs for each mining town are given in the next
table.

- 115 -
 # Sector Units Jobs/unit Total %
Jobs
1 Mining 1 12,000 12,000 20%
2 Education 40 100 4,000 7%
3 Health 25 100 2,500 4%
4 Agriculture 400 30 12,000 20%
5 Construction 30 100 3,000 5%
6 Retail & 500 20 10,000 17%
services
7 Manufacturing 40 50 2,000 3%
8 Transport 200 25 5,000 8%
9 Others 1 10,000 17%

TOTALS 60,500 100%

Table 13: projected jobs per sector for a mining town

It is important to note that while preference will be given to

privately run mining operations, our government will equally
invest in the mines as a way of ensuring the people of Zambia get
the best benefits from their mineral wealth. This will also ensure
the jobs of our people are protected. This is against the backdrop
of the current arrangement where the bulk of the revenues from
the mining industry don’t come back to Zambia but go on to
benefit other countries.

- 116 -
 5. The Steel Industrial City

With the overall planned increased economic activities, iron and

steel requirements are going to be staggering. Increased
agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and construction will
push our demand for equipment, machinery, tools, implements
and structures made out of steel/iron through the top of the
roof. From a strategic point of view, it will be prudent that we
begin to mine our own iron, make our own steel and equipment
and hard-ware.

The principle thing to note is that when it comes to equipment,

tools, machinery and vehicles, the major constituent of these
items is either steel or iron. Most equipment including mining,
transportation, construction, manufacturing and farming
equipment are made of over 90% steel and iron by weight. Just
take a look at an excavator and you will have a good idea of what
I am talking about. What is interesting is that we have plenty
iron in Zambia. Iron, from which steel is made, happens to be
one of the most abundant minerals in the earth’s crust. This
goes on to explain why the price of iron is relatively low globally.

- 117 -
For example, a ton of iron was going for an average of $200 /ton
at a time the price of Copper was $7,000/ton.

Due to the low prices of iron coupled with the fact that we have
not been a machinery/equipment manufacturing country, we
have not taken iron mining and steel production seriously in the
past. But as we begin a serious thrust towards more
manufacturing, mining, construction and mechanized
agriculture, we will need to rethink our attitude towards iron
mining and steel making in our country. This is where our own
Zambian Engineers come in even more.

Think about the following: by the time a 50ton excavator gets

delivered to Zambia, its cost is anything from $200,000.00 to
$500,000.00. Now, $200,000 for 50 tons means $4,000 per ton.
In simplistic terms, this means that when we import any
machinery/equipment made out of iron or steel, we ultimately
end up paying around $4,000/ton for iron. This means the iron
increases in value 200 times when it comes to us in the form of
equipment. We are paying this much for iron simply because
someone has gone ahead and designed an excavator, processed
iron into steel, moulded it into parts of an excavator, assembled
the excavator and transported it to us. At the end of the day, the
fact remains that it is just iron of which we have in plenty supply
right here in our country.

Since we are going to use a lot of equipment, tools, machinery

and vehicles there is need to resolve to begin making a
significant number of these items right here in our country
because we have the iron. Just look at how bulky a truck and
trailer is. Yes we are talking a couple of tons of iron/steel. A
trailer is not such a sophisticated thing to manufacture but yet
we are importing the majority of our trailers from other
Countries. As a matter of fact, importing iron at exorbitant
prices.

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We might not immediately go into hi-tech equipment and
machinery manufacturing. We can begin to make those simple
tools and less complex equipment parts for ourselves. I know for
a fact that there are Zambians who can make a complete tractor
from engine to body. It would be a strategic positive if we can go
ahead and take iron mining and steel making seriously. Even if it
means making equipment and only importing the engines will go
a long way in providing our people with more jobs and retaining
much of our wealth in our country. Surely casting a train wagon
cannot be such a complex undertaking that we need to spend
millions of dollars on importing train wagons. I refuse to believe
that! I am not a Mechanical Engineer, but if Henry Ford could
start a car manufacturing company over 100 years ago, our
engineers can definitely design and manufacture equipment,
machinery, parts and vehicles right in our country. Henry Ford
started from scratch with no Mechanical Engineering Degree and
no donor/government financing or support. Our engineers have
the advantage of knowing everything that Henry Ford knew plus
much more and therefore are much better placed to design and
manufacture vehicles, equipment and machinery than Henry
Ford was 100 years ago. Come on guys, we can do this!

Our ancestors learnt to mine and work iron into tools during the
Iron Age thousands of years ago even before Christ was born. It
will therefore be a ridiculous proposition that it is too challenging
for Zambians to mine iron, design and manufacture equipment
and machinery profitably from it in this day and age.

When I was analysing Zambia’s imports for 2013, I noted that in

the top 5 major imports was steel/iron structures which Zambia
was importing. Now these are not sophisticated equipment but
merely moulded structures of steel and iron. I know this is
something for which we have the intellectual capacity to produce
ourselves if we were serious enough. I know for a fact that we do
design and manufacture some tools, structures, hardware,
equipment and machinery right here in Zambia but what I aim
to push for is to bring into being a robust iron and steel industry
- 119 -
that will culminate into our country being able to supply a large
part of its iron/steel products requirements.

Seriously developed, our iron/steel industry will grow into

another $1billion plus industry. We need steel/iron for our own
consumption as a country and so it makes every sense that we
should develop this sector, offer our people jobs in the process
and grow our economy.

We need the steel and iron for our construction structures,

machines, equipment, trucks and trailers that we will
increasingly need to run and grow our economy. It does not
make sense that we should continue buying iron at exorbitant
prices from other countries even in the form of equipment and
machinery.

From this time going onwards, I am placing a direct challenge to

our engineers to intensify research and design tools, equipment
and parts that can be manufactured from our local iron and
steel. I want to assure our Zambian Engineers that they will have
an all-weather friend who will listen, support them and ensure
that the much needed political will is sustained at all times; to
prove to Zambia and the world that Zambian engineers can play
a vital role in Zambia’s prosperity!

The following table gives projected jobs per sector expected in the
Steel City.

- 120 -
 # Sector Units Jobs/unit Total %
Jobs
1 Mining 1 10,000 10,000 10%
2 Steel Making 1 10,000 10,000 10%
3 Equipment & tools 50 100 5,000 5%
manufacturing
4 Truck/vehicle 2 1,000 2,000 2%
manufacturing
5 Kitchen & house 20 100 2,000 2%
ware
6 Education 80 100 8,000 8%
7 Health 50 100 5,000 5%
8 Agriculture 300 50 15,000 14%
9 Construction 50 100 5,000 5%
10 Retail & services 600 25 15,000 14%
11 General 50 50 2,500 2%
Manufacturing
12 Transport 200 25 5,000 5%
13 Others 1 20,000 19%
TOTALS 104,500 100%
GDP $2.6
billion
Table 14: Projected jobs for a steel city

6. Border Trading Towns

With increased agricultural and manufacturing capacity, our

country will eventually need an increased distribution base for
goods and services. Fortunately, we are immediately surrounded
by 8 countries plus we are at the centre of the 342 million people
SADC Community36. This is ample market to turn us into a
major exporter without having to go too far for our export
markets. To quickly and efficiently off-load our export
merchandise, we are going to create trading towns located at
strategic border posts. These border towns are going to be ultra-
modern trading centres featuring up-market wholesale and retail
facilities to woo our neighbours to come over to purchase our
merchandise. These towns will also be our launch-pads for us to
establish outlets in other countries.

36
www.countryeconomy.com
- 121 -
Like other investment vehicles detailed previously, Boarder
towns will feature all basic infrastructure and amenities found in
a modern town. The following tables give projections of jobs
expected to be created by each boarder town.

# Sector Units Jobs/unit Total %

Jobs
1 Warehousing/retail 500 30 15,000 33%
2 Transport/logistics 200 20 4,000 9%
3 Education 50 100 5,000 11%
4 Health 30 100 3,000 7%
5 Agriculture 200 30 6,000 13%
6 Construction 30 100 3,000 7%
8 General 50 50 2,500 5%
Manufacturing
9 General services 100 20 2,000 4%
10 Others 1 5,000 11%

TOTALS 45,500 100%

GDP $1.1
billion
Table 15: projected jobs for a border town

7. Resort Towns

- 122 -
Being a stable country blessed with wild animals and other
natural attractions, it has long been realized that Zambia holds
serious potential for generating substantial revenues from
tourism. But like most things in Zambia, the dream for a
lucrative tourism sector has been unrealized to date. This must
change by introducing what we have decided to call „Resort
Towns‟. Resort towns are going to be small completely fenced
towns or villages that are designed and built with the sole aim of
tapping into Zambia’s tourism potential. The towns will have live
animals inside. We call Livingstone the tourist capital of Zambia
but seriously speaking, the state, design, landscaping and
service standards in that town only tell me one thing- and that
is, we are not serious about the tourism sector a tiny bit!

Resort towns will be established near national parks, lakes,

rivers and other key tourist attractions and will feature top class
design and leisure themes consistent with the best global
tourism standards. The resort towns will have a mixture of ultra-
modern African themes to deliver aesthetically superior tourist
settings than anything we have seen in Zambia. Featuring air-
strips and reliable access roads, the towns will serve as the gate-
ways to various tourist and leisure excursions. Sports,
entertainment and conference facilities will be at the higher end
of the game in resort towns.

Designed for smaller populations, the resort towns will still

feature all key infrastructure found in a modern town. The towns
will be designed to operate all necessary businesses and services
crucial to delivering a first class tourist experience. Permanent
residents of resort towns will enjoy all conveniences found in a
21st Century up-market town.

- 123 -
Resort towns will feature high quality tourism and hospitality
business training with the core mission of setting Zambia apart
in global hospitality industry excellence. Resort towns will
compete for honors on the global stage, with a Zambian theme at
all times.

Resort towns aim to push foreign tourist in-flows from the

current figures to 5 million tourists per year within 10 years. The
resort towns will also develop and aggressively sell leisure and
holiday packages to local tourists with the aim of stimulating
local tourism to significant levels.

Part of the marketing strategies of the resort towns, will be to

establish permanent foreign offices in countries that have
significant tourists. These offices will be run in partnership with
qualified and experienced citizens of the countries they will be
located in.

In order to promote local tourism, Zambians will enjoy lower

rates on holiday packages compared to foreign tourists.

- 124 -
To ensure that our country benefits from tourism, payments for
holidays to be undertaken in Zambia will be paid into bank
accounts based in Zambia.

- 125 -
 NINE
EXPLOITING ZAMBIA’S
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

- 126 -
 “Our competitive geographical advantage in
international trade and investment is unrivalled. Our
political peace is a commodity we seldom sell
adequately. Zambia needs a visionary leadership that
believes and defines modern business as its middle
name”
-KBF

- 127 -
With 8 countries sharing our borders, Zambia possesses the
enviable position of being at the centre of a significant market for
various products and services.

Country Population
1 DRC 78.74 million
2 Tanzania 55.57 million
3 Mozambique 28.83 million
4 Angola 28.81 million
5 Malawi 18.09 million
6 Zambia 16.59 million
7 Zimbabwe 12.75 million
8 Botswana 2.21 million
9 Namibia 2.48 million
Total 244.07 million
Table 16: Total population of Zambia & its neighbours 37

As clearly demonstrated in table 16, Zambia and its neighbours

have a combined population of about 244 million people. This is
just about 57 million short of the population of the United States
of America. If Zambia began to produce sufficient products and
created capacity to distribute these products and services
effectively, Zambia will never be short of market to expand its
economy.

With regards to exports, our strategic goal must be to increase

export earnings to $40 billion within the next 10 years. The
following is the breakdown of the key products that will give us
the export volumes I am talking about:

37
Source: SADC Website
- 128 -
 # DESCRIPTION UNIT QTY PRICE/UNIT TOTAL REVENUES
1 Beef Tones 1,500,000 2,500 3,750,000,000
2 Mutton Tones 1,000,000 2,500 2,500,000,000
3 Pork Tones 600,000 2,500 1,500,000,000
4 Fish Tones 500,000 2,500 1,250,000,000
5 Fruits & veg Tones 1,000,000 500 500,000,000
6 Gold Tones 100 1,000,000 100,000,000
7 Copper Tones 1,000,000 5,500 5,500,000,000
8 Steel Tones 1,000,000 220 220,000,000
9 Gemstones Tones 100 1,000,000 100,000,000
10 Apparel, shoes, bags Units 5,000,000 3 15,000,000
11 Sugar Tones 1,000,000 1,000 1,000,000,000
12 Cooking oil Litres 10,000,000 1 10,000,000
13 Juices Litres 1,000,000 0.5 500,000
14 Hardware/building materials Tones 1,000,000 3,000 3,000,000,000
15 Vehicles/equipment Units 10,000 20,000 200,000,000
16 Maize Tones 5,000,000 150 750,000,000
17 Rice Tones 2,000,000 300 600,000,000
18 Flour Tones 2,000,000 500 1,000,000,000
19 Other minerals Tones 1,000,000 3,000 3,000,000,000
20 Legumes Tones 2,000,000 500 1,000,000,000
21 Construction & Services 10,000,000,000
22 Furniture & other wares 5,000,000,000
TOTALS 40,995,500,000

Table 17: Projected annual export volumes by year 2031

Increased nation-wide production and service capacity will bring

about the need for an efficient, sustainable and systematic
access to local, regional and global markets. In any case, to
ultimately deliver 30 fully fledged production oriented cities and
towns, we need an increased revenue base for our produce. This
will automatically call for access to the broader international
market. This scenario will require a deliberate shift towards an
aggressive export orientation as opposed to the current casual
one. As such, we will have to be reorganized in such a manner as
to efficiently and profitably distribute goods and services locally,
regionally and globally. It also means our products and services
have to evolve in terms of quality standards and become
competitive at a global platform. It means a chair made in
Kanyama Township should be able to sell in a furniture shop in
the UK without any problem. A banana grown in Kawambwa
must sell in Saudi Arabia easily.

- 129 -
As part of our export market penetration strategy, our various
manufacturing and producing localities, cities and provinces
must be organized in a manner that maximizes access to local
and international markets. The following is a proposed model for
an effective and efficient access to local and international
markets.

1. Establishment of City/town Purchasing & distribution

warehouses. These warehouses will receive merchandise
from various producing localities in a city/town and
distribute to the various wholesale and retail outlets
nationally. The city warehouses will also be responsible for
buying locally manufactured products and redistributing
them internationally. With a network of such distributors,
our farmers and local producers will be guaranteed a
market at a stable and profitable rate.
2. Township wholesale outlets. Township wholesale outlets
in selected townships will feed general township retail
shops at large. This will help cut logistical costs for small
township retail shops and tuck-shops. This will cut the
cost of doing business for our people.
3. City Shopping Malls. Each City/town across Zambia will
have a shopping mall developed by us that will host our
various Zambian brands of retail and service outlets.
4. Mini-Shopping complexes in selected highly populated
townships, will host our retail brands to distribute our
products and services.
5. Township retail outlets. Each township should have one
or more of our various retail/service outlets and will get
supplies from the township and City wholesale outlets.
6. Foreign outlets. In each foreign country, the above outlets
will be replicated with an obvious bias towards distributing
goods produced in Zambia. The foreign outlets will
essentially be market outlets and platforms for Zambian
manufactured /produced goods. It will essentially mean
Zambian produced furniture, artefacts, clothes, farm
- 130 -
 produce, processed foods; raw materials and so on will find
their way into other countries through these outlets.
7. Housing estates/residential settlements
Designing and developing residential settlements or
housing estates will be the ultimate market platform for
Zambian produced merchandise. Because a complete
residential settlement requires building materials, schools,
and shops. Every time we develop a residential settlement
we are essentially developing a network of our schools,
shops and other outlets to distribute Zambian made
merchandise.
8. E Commerce
Create a robust and extensive e-commerce platform that
will make it convenient for the global market to buy and
pay for goods from Zambia.

ACCESS TO FOREIGN MARKET STRATEGY

PRODUCER
Local manufacturer (Zambia)

EXPORTER
City Warehouse/Distributor (Zambia)

IMPORTER
City warehouse/Distributor (Foreign Country)

Township retail shops/shopping malls (Foreign country)

Figure 9: Foreign market penetration strategy

- 131 -
Home grown brands as a platform for job creation &
exporting local products and services

One strategic issue that will come to the fore as part of the
foreign market penetration drive is the issue of developing world
class products and business brands. South Africans have
bombarded us with brands born and bred in their country. MTN,
Sun Hotels, Shoprite, Spar, Pick n Pay, Nandos, Hungry Lion,
FNB, Mr. Price, Pep Stores, Edgars, Furnmart and many more
visible brands are all originated from South Africa. The 10
brands I have mentioned are less than half the total number of
South African Brands successfully operating in Zambia. If you
were to ask me- I think that’s a bit too much and too careless of
us to have allowed given the fact that we have not set up even a
tenth as many Zambian grown retail brands in South Africa.
South Africa is systematically exporting her retail brands into
the larger Africa to an extent that all other Southern African
countries can easily be mistaken for provinces of the Republic of
South Africa. And understandably, most of the merchandise sold
by these retail brands is South African produced.

Shockingly, in shops such as Shoprite, Pick and Pay and Game

Stores, it is the norm to find none to only 3 Zambian
manufactured products out of 96 products in an aisle of shelves.
Imagine; Shoprite even brings in peas, pineapples, mangoes and
bananas grown in South Africa to sell in Zambia! In short, these
retail brands are platforms for distributing South African
produced goods and services giving the South African economy
an advantage over ours. And of course as we buy these South
African made products, we are creating and supporting
thousands of South African jobs whilst our people go without
jobs. Where are our farmers?- Think about it!

China is also aggressively pushing this agenda and in a very

short period of time, they have opened up super stores stocking
products made in China. We now have China Mall and Home
Essentials Stores operating in most shopping malls in our
- 132 -
country. In Ndola, the Chinese have set up a wholesale outlet
stocking Chinese products. Again just like in the case of South
Africa, by consuming these Chinese made products, we are
supporting jobs in China whilst our young people roam the
streets without jobs.

This is basic economics and there is nothing revealing about

what I am saying but it is time we did something about it. To
increase our export base, we should be able to establish and
grow our own brands of retail shops, hotels, supermarkets,
schools, restaurants, clinics, hardware shops, fuelling stations,
banks and automotive shops which we should replicate all over
Zambia as well as exporting them to other countries including
South Africa. In this way, we will establish numerous outlets to
sell our Zambian originated products thereby significantly
increasing our export earnings.

China, with a population of 1.386 billion people is the biggest

national market in the world today. We should be pro-actively
looking at what we can process and export to China in large
quantities. China is bringing tonnes of products into our
country; they should not have a problem with us exporting niche
products like honey, peanut butter, wood and others to their
country.

If anything, it will be a critical strategic move to quickly begin

exporting our brands to other countries especially top economies
such as South Africa, UK, Japan, China, USA, UAE, Saudi
Arabia and others. The strategic importance of such a move will
be that if we are able to set-up brands that can successfully
compete in these top countries, then our brands will be truly
international standard brands that will naturally do well in
Zambia, Africa and the globe at large.

Our business brands will become franchises that we will avail to

Zambian youths and seasoned entrepreneurs. Meaning, we will
avail our successful brands and distribution networks to others

- 133 -
on franchise basis. This will bring more confidence to SME
financing organizations as they will now be financing youths
knowing the youths will be venturing into businesses that will be
supported by our international class training, marketing,
management and distribution systems.

Head-quarters for Our Zambian Brands

As part of the drive towards developing international retail

brands of Zambian origin, we will need to set up some of our
production cities as Head Quarters for our multiple brands. The
headquarters will take the form of functional shopping malls and
will house as many as 100 different retail brands. These outlets
will be attached to training institutions and will be used as
practical training grounds. These headquarters will be the
launch pads and control centres from which Zambian brands
and products will be established, perfected and exported
through-out Zambia, Africa and the globe. The head-quarters
will be the main administrative, training and research centres for
Zambian originated business brands and products.

An idea of the array of brands that we will be setting up at the

head-quarters is given in the next table:

- 134 -
 Type of business/brand Proposed number
of brands
1 Clothing retail shops 5
2 Restaurants/take-aways 5
3 Media & news 4
4 Salon/beauty parlor 4
5 Accounting firms 3
6 Banks 3
7 Book stores 3
8 Butcheries 3
9 Construction firms 3
10 Electronics & gadget 3
store
11 Energy Companies 3
12 Furniture shops 3
13 Game shops 3
14 Hardware shops 3
15 Internet & IT shops 3
16 Office 3
equipment/stationery
17 Super-markets 3
18 Clearing & forwarding & 2
warehousing
19 Clinics 2
20 Craft shops 2
21 Fuelling stations 2
23 Food processing 2
24 Gym 2
25 Jewelry shops 2
26 Landscaping/décor & 2
events
27 Lodge/hotel 2
28 Marketing & branding 2
29 Packaging 2
30 Pharmacies 2
31 Property agencies 2
32 Public transport 2
33 School Shop 2
34 Security companies 2
35 Transport & logistics 2

- 135 -
 36 Travel & tours 2
37 Fun park 1
38 Property development 1
firm
39 Integrated farm 1
40 Mining Company offices 1
41 Primary school 1
42 Secondary School 1
43 University 1

TOTAL 100
Table 18: Planned business brands

What I mean by 5 clothing retail shops in the table is that we will

have 5 different clothing shops under 5 different management
teams, running under 5 different names catering to 5 different
customer needs. For example, one shop could be a low-budget
clothing shop, another one a high-budget shop, whilst one shop
could focus on children’s clothes, with 2 others focusing on
women and men’s clothes respectively.

This strategy will make it possible for us establish at least 1,000

Zambian originated business units in 10 other African countries
broken-down as detailed in the next table:

- 136 -
 Delivery outlet Qty/per Number of Total
country countries
1 Cities/towns 2 10 20
2 Shopping Malls 4 10 40
3 Supermarkets 5 10 50
4 Butcheries 20 10 200
5 Eating places 10 10 100
6 Hotels/lodges 5 10 50
7 Hardware stores 10 10 100
8 Clothing shops 5 10 50
9 Heavy equip outlets 2 10 20
10 Agro supplies shops 5 10 50
11 Wholesale 2 10 20
12 Bakeries 10 10 100
13 Drinks distributors 4 10 40
14 Schools 5 10 50
15 Banks 2 10 20
Construction 2 10 20
16 companies
17 Transport 4 10 40
companies
18 Furniture shops 4 10 40
1,010
Table 19: 1,000 business outlets to be established in foreign countries

These business outlets on their own have the potential to

generate another 50,000 jobs for Zambians.

Manufacturing

For Zambia to expand its export base using the various planned
local and international outlets, our product development and
manufacturing has to become aggressive. From now onwards,
the strategic position should be that, just like South Africa, our
retail and wholesale outlets should stock over 90% Zambian
made products. It means we no longer have the luxury of not
producing the basic products found in a retail shop such as
furniture, clothes, shoes, and processed foods. As a matter of
definite priority, we will now have a situation where a Zambian
originated super market or grocery store can comfortably operate
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with only Zambian manufactured products. We must promote
Zambian goods first.

I don’t mean to say they should only carry Zambian products,

but I am saying, if needs be, they can operate at full capacity
even if all the products they stocked were made in Zambia. From
this stand point, we will need to establish serious industries to
produce the following items as competitively as possible:

Cosmetics Processed General Hardware

Foods
Soaps Sauces Clothes Steel/iron
bars
Lotions Drinks Shoes Doors
Powders Snacks Furniture Tools
Hair Tinned Fridges Stoves
products vegetables
Oils Tinned meat Stoves equipment
& fish
Frozen foods Toys Wire
Bakery Domestic Cables
coal
Cooking oil Kitchen-ware Frames
Butter & Home Taps
cheese appliances
Honey Hand basins
Salt Sinks
Dried Cisterns
delicacies
Yogurt Floor & wall
tiles
Bottled water Door
handles
Peanut butter
Crunchy
gritters
Table 20: Products to be manufactured in Zambia

Through benchmarking, innovation, technology acquisition and

a serious focus on quality, we will quickly establish our
manufactured goods as top international brands.

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Construction
Construction is going to play a major role in ensuring we
generate as much revenues from foreign countries as possible.
One major way construction will give us an international trading
advantage is as follows;

1. As part of our foreign business foot-print, we will

aggressively construct private schools, private hospitals,
hotels, retail outlets, shopping malls, farms, housing
estates, cities and other commercial interests in foreign
countries.
2. Use Zambian made construction materials and other
products as much as practical for these developments.
3. Use Zambian professionals to construct these
developments as much as possible.

A practical example of this strategy in operation is as follows:

A Zambian construction company will be registered and set up in

DRC. Let’s call the company Luangwa Developments Ltd.
Another Zambian company called Kafue Hotels & Resorts Co will
be registered and set-up in DRC. Kafue Hotels & Resorts Co will
then give Luangwa Developments the contract to build its Hotels
and lodges. Luangwa Developments will order most of its
materials for this job from Zambian hardware stores that stock
Zambian manufactured ware. These hardware stores will then
export to DRC for this project using Zambian trucks.

The end result will be that our manufacturing, transport,

construction and hospitality industries will all benefit from this
transaction. With a target of a minimum of 1,000 Zambian
business units in other countries within a 10 years period, the
impact will be significant. Are the Zambian engineers and
entrepreneurs following me? We have work to do!

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The Importance of Research and Development

With my proposed aggressive focus on the export markets,

Research and Development as a competitive tool becomes vital.
For our products and services to find regional and global
acceptance, they have to be of superior standards. They also
have to be developed and manufactured at the most cost effective
rates. The only way we will achieve this is to engage in well-
funded Research and Development (R&D) in various products
and services. We need to give the global market a reason for
preferring a mango juice made in Zambia as opposed to one
made in South Africa, for example. We need the global
community to clamour for Masuku wine because we have spent
the time to develop a world class beverage.

We need our innovative sons and daughters to develop new

tractors that we can use in Zambia and also sell to the rest of
Africa. We want our scientists to develop processed foods that
are healthier and tastier than those offered by competitors. We
need our chemists to develop superior medicines, cosmetics and
detergents that we can stock in our shops here in Zambia and
globally. We need our engineers to come up with building
materials and technologies that will give us stronger and cheaper
roads and buildings made of 100% local materials. We want
engineers to develop cheaper sources of energy for this country.

We are living in a world rapidly being dominated by apps and

other I.T. innovations and it is time we had our own young
Zambians developing these apps to give us a competitive edge as
a country. I have so much faith in my country.

No great country has ever developed without investing in

Research and Development. Zambia has great scientific minds
some of whom are busy developing other nations. Others have
been ignored and deliberately misallocated by our politicians all
because of their principles. It is time that we begin to embrace
these sons and daughters of the soil and give them the necessary

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support needed to develop and perfect innovations that will put
this nation ahead.

I am committed to setting up support systems that will ensure

our innovators in every field have the necessary equipment, tools
and resources to develop products and services that will give our
nation a competitive advantage.

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 TEN
LOCAL CHURCH BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT FUND

- 142 -
“Zambia‟s Economic Transformation is not
going to happen without the full
participation of the Church”
-KBF

- 143 -
In the first „Zambia Must Prosper‟ book, I indicated my firm belief
that Zambia’s transformation is not going to happen without the
active participation of the Church. This is because the Church
has extensive grassroots reach and collectively meets millions of
citizens every week throughout the year. In these churches are
the poor Zambian citizens we are trying to serve. I also pointed
out that as long as Zambians are poor, majority of churches will
be poor with poorly paid pastors. The implication is, if we
empowered our poor church members, churches will have better
financial standing to pay pastors well and pursue God’s work
more effectively. The prosperity of this nation is intricately tied to
the prosperity of the Church. If the Church took a decisive move
to prosper, Zambia shall prosper. The Church is the game
changer here.

In fact, we have realised that as long as the Church is not

properly co-opted and involved, the Seventh National
Development Plan (7NDP) will be yet another failed development
plan. The simple logic is, for the 7NDP to be actualised, you need
citizens in all corners of Zambia to align their activities with the
7NDP. Until a considerable number of citizens are aware of the
objectives of the 7NDP, the whole document is nothing but an
academic paper for the amusement of academicians and
politicians. The most effective and cheapest way to get citizens
aware and involved is through an organisation with the widest
grassroots reach. At the moment, that organisation is no other
than the Church.

In recognising this reality, as a team, we have resolved to pursue

a practical partnership with the Church towards creating
employment and wealth for our people. In the absence of solid
statistics, we estimate that Zambia is home to as many as
20,000 local church branches. That is considering all branches
of the Catholic, UCZ, Anglican, Seventh Day, Jehova’s Witnesses,
Bread of Life, Apostolic Church in Zambia and many other
Christian Church formations around the country. To help put
this estimation in context, an average of 12 local church
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branches per each of our 1780 wards gives us a total of 21,360
churches branches (1780 wards X 12 churches) around the
country. Lusaka district alone is estimated to have over 5,000
churches. Kitwe alone is estimated to have more than 2,000
churches. In short, Lusaka and Kitwe alone are home to over
7,000 church branches! We suspect there are much more
churches around the country but we will work with a figure of
20,000 churches as a starting point.

We opined that if a program was in place that ensured that each

local church supported the establishment of one local business
every year, we will have 20,000 businesses being established
every year. If each of these local church supported businesses
employed a minimum of 5 church members, we are looking at
total annual employment of 100,000 (5 X 20,000) church
members around the country!

Based on this analysis, it is my resolve to establish a $100

million Local Church Business Development Fund with a
targeted average funding of $5,000 per local church. This will be
a revolving fund that will be advanced to groups of church
members to venture into businesses under the clear condition
that this capital will be refunded to the local church to benefit
other church members each year.

The Church is the appropriate partner in this regard due to the

fact that the Church has the numbers and mobilising capacity to
raise additional funds towards this agenda. In addition, the
Church has credible oversight capacity to ensure this program is
properly supervised. My proposal is that each church branch will
be required to raise funds and contribute to this initiative before
funds are released to them from the government funded
revolving fund. This means that before a church branch can
access $5,000 from the revolving fund, they will be expected to
raise $5,000 from within their membership towards the
establishing of local church supported businesses. This will
bring the business capital available to $10,000 per church.
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With this kind of capital, church members can establish medium
sized formal businesses such as restaurants, butcheries, farms,
community schools and many others.

For administrative purposes, I propose the following guidelines

for the management of this fund.

1. Each church to establish a Local Church Business Fund

organisation and Bank account.
2. Each church to raise a minimum amount contribution as
an addition to this fund from within their membership.
3. Funding recipients to under-go business training.
4. Local church to venture into first business owned by the
Church.
5. Funds from this initial business to be used to finance
businesses to be owned by church members on an annual
basis.
6. A list of recommended businesses will be identified but
preference will be given to agriculture, manufacturing and
locally developed franchise businesses as discussed in the
immediate previous chapter.

This implies the following:

Let us say a butchery franchise called Nyama Fresh happens to

be one of the brands developed in a Livestock town. A group of
church members could be financed to establish a Nyama Fresh
Butchery outlet within their community in Chawama. Meat and
other fresh produce will then be supplied to this Butchery on a
daily basis from the livestock town. The Nyama Fresh Butchery
in Chawama will be expected to comply and operate under
specific quality standards to maintain the brand.

I am certain that this strategy has the potential to give us more

than 100,000 new jobs every year across the country.

Local Church supported businesses must be established to

compliment the following objectives:

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 1. Increasing agriculture productivity
2. Providing a national network of outlets for distributing
products from production cities/towns.
3. Improving Education services
4. Ensuring every family has a home
5. Ensuring citizen’s domination of Zambia’s economy

As such, among the most recommended businesses for this

program will be the following:

1. Agriculture operations.
2. Private schools.
3. Tuck shops.
4. Chain stores.
5. Clothing stores.
6. Butcheries.
7. Construction companies.
8. Property development companies
9. Real Estate Agencies
10. Restaurants.
11. Financial services.
12. Accounting & Tax Services
13. Brick making.
14. Carpentry.
15. Metal fabrication.
16. Hardware stores.
17. Car wash.
18. Beauty shops (salon & barber services)
19. Bulk Transport services.
20. Passenger transportation
21. Bed and breakfast services.
22. Cleaning services.
23. Furniture shops.
24. Bakeries & confectionaries shops
25. Internet cafes & business centres
26. Mobile money services

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The overall thinking here is that when the Agri-city, Livestock
town and fish producing town produce and processes their
various products, there will be local church owned butcheries,
restaurants, chain stores and tuck-shops and many others that
will stock and distribute these items in local communities
throughout the country. Most importantly, these will be outlets
owned by Zambian citizens.

To ensure a competitive edge locally and internationally, issues

of quality standards are going to be vital. As a non-negotiable
rule, all our supported operations shall observe high product
and service standards. One way we will ensure this for local
church supported businesses is to create franchises that will
ensure agreed standards are enforced and maintained.

Church members who will be funded to establish franchises will

be sponsored for training in production cities where particular
franchise head offices and training centres will be located.

Ultimately, the Local Church Business Development agenda

seriously compliments the successful building of a nation-wide
network of market outlets for various products from production
cities/towns.

As a strategic approach, I propose that the first business to be

established must be owned by each participating church and
must employ church members. For example a church could
establish a school on its premises. With proceeds from this
school, the church could then help finance subsequent church
groups to establish businesses every year. Each financed group
will be required to pay back the capital so that this capital can
help other church members to venture into business.

Establishment of A Christian Owned Public Company

If we took a conservative estimation that Zambia has 5 million

Christians of working age and each of these Christians were to
contribute K100 every month to a collective Christian Investment

- 148 -
fund, K500 million or $50 million would be raised every month!
If we only had 2 million Christians as active contributors to this
project, $20 million can still be raised every month. By the end of
the year, $240 million would have been raised by the collective
Church body. In 5 years, $1 billion can be raised using this
approach! This represents substantial financial resources to
significantly impact the economy of this country if deployed
efficiently.

Personally, I am looking forward to a time when government will

not need to go looking outside the country to borrow funds but
can borrow these funds from a Christian owned Bank from
within Zambia! I am looking forward to a time when a Christian
owned public company can make multi-million dollar
investments in developing massive green field mining projects
just like First Quantum has done in Kalumbila! I am looking
forward to a time when Christians, through a public company
can take over the running of KCM mines should the current
owners fail to live up to expectations! I am looking forward to a
Christian owned public company that will pursue big scale
profitable business projects that will effectively translate into
jobs and wealth for Zambians.

There is power in numbers and as the Church, we have the

numbers that can transform this country if we combined our
individual capacities towards common goals.

My call to the Church is that it is time Christians established a

collective investment company with the aim of empowering
Zambian Christians and creating employment for our people who
are currently without jobs. It is time Christians joined together
and established a Christian owned bank, mega construction
companies, mines, farms and so on.

Establishment of Church Friendly bank

The biggest capital expenditure in the life of a church includes

church building construction, furniture and sound system.
- 149 -
Many newly established churches struggle to raise funds to
finance these cardinal requirements for their ministries. To make
matters worse, a conventional bank would never lend money to a
young church for church building, furniture and equipment
because they consider this a risky undertaking.

Funny enough, my view is, a church has better chances of

repaying a loan than a business or an individual. This is because
a church does not rely on one individual for financial
contributions but rather relies on several individuals. This for
me, provides an inbuilt risk mitigation feature which most banks
have been overlooking.

As Christians, it is in our interest to have our own bank that is

friendly to our needs as we go about the business of spreading
the Good News and serving the Lord. Financing Church building
construction, furniture and sound equipment is a banking niche
waiting for Christians to exploit very profitably for that matter!

To my fellow Christians my appeal is that we open our minds

and decide to work together for the betterment of our country. To
you all, across the various denominations, I am available. Our
common denominator is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and
Zambia, our country!

- 150 -
- 151 -
 ELEVEN
EVERY YOUTH IN SCHOOL OR AT
WORK

- 152 -
 “I have realised that when our youths approach me
on the streets and politely request me for an
opportunity to clean my car in exchange for a small
fee, what the youths are actually communicating is
that; „we are young, energetic and ready to work.
Give us work to do; any work- as long as we can feed
our families‟.
It is at this stage that one has to admit that we have
failed our youths and it is time to correct this
anomaly. It‟s time to get our youths to work!”
-K.B.F.

- 153 -
There are two fundamental misconceptions Zambian Politicians
continue to hold when it comes to our youths. Firstly, that the
millions of our unemployed youths are a burden as opposed to
an asset. Secondly, that education is a cost rather than an
investment.

In the year 2017, the World Bank Group estimated that between
2017 and 2031 about 375,000 young people will be offloaded
into the Zambian job market every year38. Yet available statistics
indicate that jobs in Zambia grow only at an average annual rate
of 2.8%39. That’s roughly around 80,000 new jobs in the year
2017. According to the Ministry of General Education, 113,647
Zambian youths sat for grade 12 exams in 2017 but yet the
Minister of Higher education announced in January 2018 that
government would sponsor only 4,612 students for vocational,
college and university training for the entire country!40 This
represents a mere 4% of grade twelve leavers and is a good
indicator of how careless Zambia has become in the area of
handling youths.

Just to contextualise how meagre government sponsorship to

tertiary education is, the following table indicates the number of
students enrolled at different universities in 2016 and 2017.

Name of Institution 2016 2017

1 University of Zambia 4,315 5,657
2 Copperbelt University 5,960 7,631
3 Mulungushi University 3,930 4,751
4 Zambia Open University 3,187 2,888
5 DMI-St-Eugene University 154 822
6 University of Lusaka 4,569 4,198
7 Lusaka Apex 5,487 7,376
Medical University
Totals 27,602 33,323
Table 21: Number of students enrolled in each university41

38
World Bank Group, Jobs Diagnostic, Zambia, 2018
39
World Bank Group, In Zambia, A Need for Faster and More Productive Job Creation, 13 June 2017
40
https://zambiareports.com/2018/01/31/4-000-students-get-unza-cbu-tevet-scholarships/
41
CSO, Zambia in figures 2018
- 154 -
The Educational Statistical bulletin 2016 reports 26,029
students enrolled in all major Educational Colleges around the
country.

For our government to only provide sponsorship to about 4,600

students out of more than 100,000 of our young people that
require training, it is a fair comment to say our government long
decided to abdicate its responsibility of ensuring we have a
skilled population.

Based on statistics from the 2010 population census, around

82.1% of Zambia’s population is under the age of 35 years.
Considering the fact that our population has grown to an
estimated over 17 million, this youth population in today’s
figures can be further broken down as follows:

Age group Percent Estimated

age population
1 0-14 years 45.4% 7.7 million
2 15-35 years 36.7% 6.2 million
Total 82.1% 13.9 million
Table 22: Zambia’s youth population broken down by age

This age distribution tells us the following things;

1. The age group (0-14yrs) representing Zambia’s future

productive potential is 45.4% or 7.7 million of our
population.
2. Potentially, our most energetic and productive age group of
15-35years makes up 36.7% or 6.2million of our
population.
3. We can reasonably estimate that about 4 million youths
are between 20 and 35 years and are of working age, are
not in colleges or universities and are available for
employment.
4. Based on the latest Labour Force Survey of 2017 which
indicates that 48% of youths are unemployed, I can
extrapolate that as much as 2 million young people
available for work are currently unemployed.
- 155 -
 5. To get the best out of our human capital, policy direction
and investment needs to place a special focus on our
citizens aged 35years and below.

If we get our minds and act right in how we handle our youths,
Zambian youths are by far the greatest asset this country readily
possesses. You need to accept the reality that the quality and
wealth of a nation is highly dependent on the quality of its
human resource. This is simply because this human resource is
what interacts with the natural resources to produce wealth and
prosperity for a nation. Actually, the human resource is far more
important than the natural resources. This is why there are
countries with much less natural resources than Zambia but
have wealthier citizens than Zambia by far. Having a lot of
natural resources is no guarantee for national prosperity but a
high quality human resource composition is a sure guarantee for
national prosperity. Dr. Mensa Otabil correctly postulates that
“The prosperity of a nation depends on the wisdom of its people.”

Israel is a tiny nation in size, mostly desert and has a population

of about 8.8 million people. Yet Israel posted a GDP of $373
billion in 2018. Zambia’s GDP in 2018 was round about $27
billion! Zambia has 17 million people, is much bigger than Israel
and has some of the best land, water and mineral resources of
any nation in the world. The calibre of the people of Israel is the
defining issue here.

The current state of our nation is nothing but a result of the

calibre of our human resources in politics, government and
private sector. It is also a reflection of how effectively Zambian
leadership has deployed this human resource for the
advancement of the nation so far. The fact that youths constitute
82% of our human capital renders them the most important
group in our country. If Zambia will see significant progress in
all areas of our national life, how we handle our youths is the
defining aspect.

- 156 -
With the underlying understanding that productive work or
employment is the foundation for wealth and prosperity, if we
prepare our young people adequately for the work place through
education/training and ensure that they have work when they
are ready to work, our nation will reap serious real benefits.
Currently, our nation is ailing because we are not adequately
training our young people and we are not providing jobs for
those young people who want to work. This is a perfect recipe for
poverty to be entrenched in our nation.

In realising the strategic importance of our young people, I have

resolved to place particular focus on the 35 years and below age
group. I particularly aim at ensuring every youth in Zambia is
either in school gaining quality training or has decent
employment. Imagine the impact on the economy if for 5 straight
years, every youth is either at school being trained or at work
contributing to the growth of our economy! Just 4 million young
people working and each contributing $25,000 yearly can give us
$100 billion in GDP! As an umbrella approach, I have resolved to
pursue an agenda I am calling; “Every Youth in School or at
Work.”

Under this agenda, I want to ensure that every Zambian youth of

school going age gets the best training to ensure he is equipped
to offer this country the best productivity. I also want to ensure
that every Zambian youth of working age has an opportunity and
is co-opted to contributing to creating wealth for our nation. For
this reason, I am advocating and will ensure that we pursue
policies aimed at achieving the following:

1. The provision of high quality free primary and secondary

school education in Zambia.
2. Reduce the high number of pupils per class to a maximum
of 40 pupils per class within 5 years and to 30 pupils per
class in 10 years.
3. That no child drops out of school on account of failing
grade 7 or grade 9 exams. Children that fail exams at any
- 157 -
 level will be given an option to re- attempt the exams or to
take up less academic but rather more practical forms of
education.
4. Eradicate the need for a grade 12 certificate as a
compulsory academic prerequisite to employment or
further education.
5. That our primary to university education curriculum be
modified to prepare our youths adequately for the real work
place.
6. That we create financial and infrastructure capacity to
absorb all grade 12 school leavers into apprenticeships,
vocational training, colleges and universities every year.
Youths trained under this arrangement will be expected to
repay educational loans once they start working.
7. Build and increase sports and recreational infrastructure
to tap into the various talents that our youths possess so
that such talent is positively utilised.
8. That every available and willing youth can find gainful
employment any time they wish.

Under this agenda, it will be an offense for guardians to have

children under the age of 16 that are out of school or not
connected to a training facility offering sports, skills or arts.

I am fully aware that this cannot be achieved within one year,

but I am certain that it can be achieved within 5 years of
running a government. The first 2 years would be used to create
the policy, financial, infrastructure and human resource capacity
to implement this agenda in full.

We must further ensure that within 5 years every youth not in

school has a taxable job. Let me put it like this: if all we achieved
was putting 4 million unemployed youths to highly productive
work, Zambia would become a prosperous nation instantly!
These 4 million youths productively employed, can pay for the
provision of free education for their fellow youths in primary and
secondary schools! The 4 million youths can avail funds such
- 158 -
that every grade 12 school leaver willing to pursue tertiary
education will have access to an educational loan!

Believe it or not, 4 million employed youths contributing K100

every month for one year specifically to tertiary education is
equivalent to $480 million every year! To sponsor all grade 12
leavers to pursue university, college and vocational education
will roughly cost $300 million annually. This covers tuition,
lodging and meals! If we were to sponsor 100,000 students for 4
years at the average rate of K30,000 per year, we are looking at
$1.2 billion. This means that with $1.2 billion we can sponsor
100,000 1st year students, 100,000 2nd year students, 100,000
3rd year students up to 100,000 4th year students at university
level. Meaning that what is needed is to build a revolving tertiary
education fund of $1.2 billion for Zambia to be able to sponsor
all students at various stages of their tertiary education every
year. Government can build this fund within 4 years by resolving
to avail educational loans to every tertiary student for 4
consecutive years. After these students complete their studies
and begin to pay back their educational loans, the loan
repayments will then begin to pay for the education of
subsequent students. This will eventually reduce pressure on
government treasury.

My resolved approach to tertiary education is to commit $300

million every year for 4 years as education loans to cover every
grade 12 leaver for all types of training. Once we build this
substantial fund, loan repayments will eventually begin to pay
for tertiary education without government having to release
money from treasury.

When it comes to primary and secondary school level, my policy

position is that we must provide free education at this level
without fail. We must specifically reorient the education budget
to ensure that the majority of the budget goes to the business of
educating our young people as number one priority.

- 159 -
I also want to ensure that maximum class size be limited to 30
pupils within 10 years. For pupil population of about 4 million,
we will require nothing less than 134,00 properly trained and
employed teachers in our education sector. If we assume
120,000 will be employed by government, at an average salary of
K9,000, the annual wage bill would be about $1 billion.

We will also need to construct more schools in urban and rural

areas. It will also require that we upgrade and furnish every
rural school infrastructure. We must pursue the construction of
more boarding schools in remote rural areas. We will no longer
entertain our children learning under trees or in ramshackle
structures.

For schools in remote rural areas, our standard strategic

requirement should be that high quality, housing be built for our
teachers and staff. In addition, school based grocery shops
should be established to ensure our teachers in remote areas
have got sufficient basic supplies. In summary, it is my intention
to ensure that beautiful, high quality school compounds fitted
with solar power and boreholes are built to motivate our teachers
to go and work in rural areas. It will be mandatory that every
school has recreational, arts and sports facilities so that we can
tap the skills of our youths.

Robust school feeding programs

Making sure our learners are adequately fed is vital for a

successful education system. One way we will ensure every
school has enough food for our learners, is to encourage vibrant
production units in every school. These production units will
include, agriculture, carpentry, metal work, brick making and
tuck-shops. These units will also avail an opportunity for
learners to acquire practical skills.

- 160 -
Interventions for the girl child

The girl child, especially in rural areas, suffers factors that

continue to result in absenteeism and high school dropout.
Among the biggest factors are lack of sanitary towels and early
marriages. These two factors are highly related to poverty. We
must ensure the implementation of policies that ensure every
school going girl child has sufficient supplies of sanitary towels.

For those that maybe wondering how we would finance this

agenda, the proposed 2019 budget allocates close to $1.3 billion
to the education sector. This kind of money applied properly, is
almost adequate for this transformational agenda which needs
just about $1.8 billion annually to set Zambia’s education sector
on a different path. In short, for my proposed education sector,
what is required is an additional $500 million and this money
can be diverted from budget areas that are not giving our nation
the best dividends.

For a long time now, as a nation, we have somehow come to

accept that Zambia cannot afford free basic education. The
question we have omitted to ask over the years is; ‘how much
would free basic education cost us?’ The other question we have
omitted to ask is „how much do we need as a nation to ensure
every grade 12 school leaver is sponsored for university, college,
apprenticeship or vocational training including lodging and
meals?‟. From my estimates $1.8 billion every year properly
utilised, can give us free basic education and cover the loans for
every grade 12 leaver for tertiary education. I want to see every
school going youth at school and would therefore find the
additional $500 million required to make this happen. I would
ensure waste of resources is eliminated in the education sector
to ensure efficient utilisation towards a properly trained youth
population.

Just think of how much money we will free up when we begin to

purchase public products and services at fair prices as opposed

- 161 -
to the inflated prices Zambia has been subjected to in the last 5
years or so! Imagine how much money we will avail if we froze
the purchase of unnecessary new government vehicles for 2
years! If you have an idea of how much money we are spending
just on purchasing and maintaining government vehicles, you
will agree that the money to revolutionise our education sector is
there and all we need to do is to change our priorities!

I am certain that the donor community will be more inspired and

comfortable to chip in and support a program that aims at
building decent schools, train teachers adequately and ensure
quality education in our rural areas.

Rethinking Teachers’ Training

As mentioned before, the education agenda I propose to pursue

will require nothing less than 134,000 fully trained primary and
secondary school teachers. 120,000 of these have to be in
government schools. 10,000 to 20,000 teachers must be
specialised in sport, drama, music, culinary arts, fashion and
design.

According to the latest educational Statistics Bulletin of 2016,

Zambia had 96,228 teachers. 75,362 were employed in public
schools. At face value, this might look like a decent number until
you get to know that over 37,000 teachers in our education
system have certificate level education or are actually
untrained42. That’s about 36% of our teachers. About 38,000
teachers were reported to have diploma level education.

Effectively, we currently have about 60,000 teachers trained at

diploma level and above. With our target of at least 134,000
teachers, that means we have a shortfall of 74,000 adequately
trained teachers. It means we have an immediate need to employ
74,000 teachers at diploma level and above. On 11th January,
2019, the government of Zambia announced that over 27,000

42
Source: The Educational Statistical Bulleting 2016
- 162 -
trained teachers applied for teaching jobs and only 2,009 were
given jobs! We have more than 25,000 trained teachers roaming
the streets!

To catch up with our requirements for adequately trained

teachers, I would immediately mop up and employ all the
existing trained teachers. Thereafter, I would begin to employ
teachers at the rate of 10,000 every year. I would also avail
scholarships to have at least 5,000 of our teachers below
diploma level to go for degree training every year.

In Zambia, teacher training or the teaching profession is

generally regarded as one of the least preferred career options.
Many youths go to teaching colleges or pursue teaching as a
career of last resort after failing to secure college slots in their
preferred career options. As such, the teaching profession rarely
attracts the best of our young people. This is mainly because a
Teacher was for a long time, regarded as a lowly paid civil
servant.

With my proposition, teachers are going to be pivotal, therefore,

making the quality and calibre of a teacher extremely important.
We are going to be training an increased number of teachers but
more importantly, we are going to be training a higher quality
teacher than before. This means we must invest handsomely in
ensuring we enrol some of our best grade 12’s and train them
into some of the best teachers in the world. It is cardinal because
teachers are responsible for training the future of Zambia. They
need to be well equipped and highly motivated to do this. We
therefore must not approach teachers’ training casually.

Going forward, we must put up a policy that the minimum

teacher training requirement be at degree level. Meaning in
future, government must not employ teachers below diploma
level. Thus, it is non-negotiable that we introduce special
incentives and allowances to ensure the teaching profession has
some of the best remuneration packages in the country. It is a

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settled fact that none of us would be who we are without the
teachers that taught us.

Creating Youth Employment

When it comes to creating jobs for our youths, I will ensure our
youths find jobs and business opportunities in our planned
production cities, wards and housing settlements. And
specifically:

1. Procurement will be skewed to ensure 50% goes to

businesses owned by Zambians below the age of 40 years.
Young people are in the majority so it makes sense that
they get the majority of government procurement deals.
2. During mass housing construction projects, components
such as supply of concrete blocks, burglar bars, window
frames, doors and other metal or woodwork based products
will be awarded to youths with appropriate skills.
3. When construction projects are awarded to young business
owners, experienced local or expatriate personnel should
be attached to them to mentor and create capacity in them.
We must no longer entertain the narrative that the
Zambian government does not award enough contracts to
Zambians because Zambian contractors offer sub-standard
work. We must take it upon ourselves to upscale the skills
of our young people. I am convinced that this is an
investment worth making.
4. Capital must be provided to ensure young people are
trained and helped to venture into strategic businesses
such as agriculture, construction, mining and services.
5. We must ensure that 30% of cabinet and senior
government appointments are reserved for suitably
qualified and skilled Zambians below the age of 40 years.

The ‘Tripple M’ Strategy for Youth Empowerment

When this country achieves a situation where all available

youths of working age are adequately skilled and actively
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engaged in wealth generating activities, Zambia will experience
explosive growth in prosperity!

This is why I have resolved to ensure the following in regards to

our youths:

Mentorship:

That our youths get as much training and practical mentorship

in fields that they intend to pursue as careers. This is to ensure
our youths are capacitated to produce globally competitive
products and services.

Markets:

That we create a national, regional and global environment that

can readily assimilate the services and products coming from our
skilled youths. This is to ensure that there are adequate markets
for the products and services produced by our youths.

Money:

That after appropriate training and mentoring, our youths are

financially supported to establish and run commercial
enterprises in Zambia, Africa and globally. A system of giving
loans to our youths will be developed on long term flexible
repayment terms.

A very practical illustration of the ‘Tripple M’ approach in action

would be as follows:

That in an agri-city there will be a university that will be offering

training for youths in various fields including hospitality. That as
part of practical mentoring, students training for hospitality
related courses will be attached to hotels based in the agri city to
attain practical training in addition to the theoretical training at
university. That upon completion of their theoretical and
practical training, these youths will be financed to set up and
run similar hotels in Zambia and Africa.

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This approach will ensure our youths have jobs and productively
contributing to our economy.

Incorporating the youths who dropped out of School

The next table gives an idea of how many candidates sat for the
various exams in 2012 and 2017.

Grade Number of candidates Number of candidates

2012 2017
7 337,706 364,546
9 291,018 308,060
12 103,853 113,647
Table 23: Number of candidates sitting for various exams in Zambia43

The years 2012 and 2017 have been picked for analysis for the
sole reason that the stream of students that wrote grade 7
examinations in 2012 is the same stream of students that wrote
grade 12 examinations in 2017. From the table you will notice
serious decline in candidates sitting for exams as the grades
proceed. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2012, we had
337,706 students that sat for grade 7 exams. By the time this
stream of students were writing grade 12 exams in 2017, they
were only 113,647. This is a decline of 223,659! This is a rough
indicator of how many students dropped out of the education
system between 2012 and 2017. My concern is: what happened
to this huge number of students who wrote grade 7 exams in
2012 but did not write grade 12 exams with the rest of their
peers in 2017? This is a 66% drop and is too huge for us to just
casually gloss over! The general interpretation is that we are
losing up to 66% of our students before they get to grade 12.

Where did this 66% of our young people go and what are they
currently doing? How many of them continued with some form of
education and what kind of work are they currently doing if any?
The reality is we have quite a huge chunk of school dropouts in
our secondary education system. It is this group that I have in
mind. I understand that a lot of them could have failed to
43
As per statements from Ministry of Education
- 166 -
proceed due to financial limitations and lack of educational
facilities. Some of them still have the desire to pursue their
education beyond grade 12 whilst others are more interested in
attaining vocational and skills training.

We must resolve to incorporate and pick up these young people

to ensure they improve their education and get positioned to
offer better service and productivity to the nation. This is not a
move of benevolence or charity but a strategic investment. Better
trained, these young people stand to offer Zambia better
contribution and returns. I am interested in ensuring that each
Zambian is able to give us the best productivity possible. To this
end, we must avail and fund the following programs for out of
school youths who still crave education:

1. Mentorship in various areas to provoke interest

2. Apprenticeships
3. Vocational Training
4. Entrepreneurship Training
5. Adult Education
6. Recreational activities such as sports, drama, music and so
on.

These educational services will be best offered through the

planned production cities. In the production cities, University
and college campuses will be attached to industry. Every
company in the production cities will have a program and
understanding with universities and colleges to sponsor and
train staff at various levels of education. When our drop-out
youths are given employment in the production cities, they will
access these training programs. I believe that with better
training, our youths will give us better workers!

Every Youth at Work data base

For us to plan and implement the every Youth at Work or at

school Agenda, we will need to understand the formation of our
unemployed young people. That is, we need to understand where
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they are, their ages, level of education, skills and experience,
their marital status and the like. This data base will help us
catalogue the various skills available from our young people and
enable us plan our policy and investments towards assimilating
every young person in some productive engagement. This will
entail that we build a national data base of all our unemployed
and out of school youths around the country.

Since I am passionate about seeing to it that every young person

is employed productively, I have decided not to wait until I am a
President to play a part in this area. I have decided to, in a small
way, begin to empower some young people with training and
working capital for various ventures. This simply means: my
team and I will go ahead and create this data base of
unemployed young people and begin using it for targeting youth
empowerment around the country.

Due to the fact that substantial amounts of funds will be

required to empower millions of youths, I will engage friends,
colleagues and other well-wishers to join me in this noble cause.
I am hereby launching the KBF Youth Agenda with the primary
mission of ensuring that Every Youth is in School or at Work.

Reconstructing sports, arts, skills and recreational facilities

One very evident negative development currently prevalent in

Zambia is the growing youth delinquency. Poverty,
unemployment and lack of sports and safe recreational facilities
have been cited as the major contributors. What is very true is
that indeed, our youths in rural and urban areas do not have
access to adequate sports and recreational facilities and
programs to keep them sufficiently occupied. In such an
environment, it becomes almost natural that our youths will
turn to vices such as drug and alcohol consumption, illicit and
unsafe sexual practices and criminal activities.

When we were growing up on the Copperbelt Province, schools

had strong sports programs to the extent that every weekend,
- 168 -
each school was competing against other schools in various
sports disciplines. From the community level, each zone had a
sports complex or club house that housed almost every popular
sports discipline you can think of. These sports clubs were
accessible to young people and adults from the community and
kept us constructively engaged.

I am saddened to point out that since the advent of privatisation

in the 1990’s, the sports, arts, skills and recreational foundation
built by the UNIP Government and the mining companies has
been practically decimated. Inter-school leagues as we knew
them then have all but crumbled and one wonders how we
expect a strong national football team when we have killed the
football nurseries from which the likes of Kalusha Bwalya were
nurtured. Drama clubs are dead, debate clubs are almost
unheard of and most recreational facilities have since died out.

Besides keeping youths constructively occupied, sports also play

a critical role in building discipline and character in our youths.
The importance of sports, therefore, should not be
underestimated. Zambia has no choice but to get its act together
and come up with a plan to recover sports throughout the
country. To this end, we must pursue the following:

1. Restore inter-school sports leagues

2. Restore and strengthen debate, drama and music clubs in
schools and make them competitive.
3. Carry-out an inventory audit of all community sports
facilities around the country.
4. Revamp redundant sports and skills development facilities
around the country and establish more in communities
where they don’t exist.
5. Direct social corporate responsibility towards investing in
sports facilities: athletics, swimming, tennis, basketball,
netball and many other sports disciplines.
6. Promote leadership training and mentorship programs for
youths.
- 169 -
As a country, we must promote the arts such as music, drama,
dance and debate. It is a fact that arts and sports properly
harnessed can be big business. It is also a fact that not all our
children are academically gifted. Some of our young people turn
out to be more gifted in the arts than in academics thereby
making it vital that we help develop every natural talent residing
in each Zambian child.

Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have never been to

university, but they feed off their footballing talent. In recent
years, stand-up comedy has become big business that has made
the likes of Trevor Noah into millionaires! I know we have equally
talented young people in Zambia. Whatever happened to
ZANASE Drama Club, Tikwiza and Mabvuto Theatre Clubs? We
must give a rebirth to our acting. Talent pays and it must begin
to pay in Zambia.

THE NEED FOR A GENERATIONAL LEADERSHIP HANDOVER

It is generally agreed that Zambia’s political leadership space has

been dominated for far too long by the same faces that have been
recycled from one political party to the other. From the time of
the MMD in the 1990s to date, Zambia’s politics, at government
level, have been dominated by the same faces. Some Zambians
who were ministers and MPs during Chiluba’s time are still
ministers and MPs to date. This is 28 years later and after four
other presidents have ruled Zambia! A considerable number of
people who were MPs and Ministers in Rupiya Banda’s MMD
government, are still part of President Edgar Lungu’s PF
government.

One of the possible reasons our country has failed to transform

and progress after so many years is that we have continued to
carry-over people who failed to deliver in previous governments
to new subsequent governments. How we have been expecting
that these characters would perform any better every time we

- 170 -
carry them into new governments, is something that defies all
logic.

One thing that I have resolved to embark on is to facilitate what I

am calling ‘a generational leadership handover’. A
generational leadership handover refers to bringing on board a
younger generation of leaders in place of the older generation. I
strongly believe that it is time we facilitated for a younger
generation of leaders to take over the driving seat in our country.
It is my belief that the younger generation has the natural DNA
to foster and implement bold transformation towards a better
Zambia. From observations, I am inclined to think that recycled
politicians are too fixed in their old ways of thinking and doing
things and are practically incapable of bold transformation.
Zambia will not move forward if we stick to the same old faces in
our political and government arenas.

I have resolved to play the role of a midwife in gradually

delivering a new generation of leaders to transform our country.
Our young people are more educated and more exposed than any
previous leadership generation to have ever presided over
Zambia. I find it very counter-productive that we have continued
to block our young people from playing prominent leadership
roles.

In pursuing a generational leadership handover, I will ensure a

healthy balance between experience and youth to enable our
young people receive mentoring from veterans. Generational
leadership handover, therefore, does not mean a wholesale and
immediate change of leadership based on age but it will be a
gradual process that will culminate into a complete leadership
handover within a 10 years period. I will ensure that by 2031,
Zambia will be led by a completely new set of people from the
ones playing prominent roles today!!

In ensuring that Zambia experiences a complete generational

leadership hand-over, I plan to pursue the following:

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 1. Introduce a quota-system that demands that 30% of
cabinet, parliamentary and senior civil service positions are
reserved for people below the age of 40.
2. That a term limit be introduced for all elective positions
including MPs, Mayors and councillors. If we see it fit that
a president should be limited to two terms in office, it is
odd that we don’t have term limits for other elective
positions! This country has too many qualified people and
it makes every sense that we have inbuilt systems that
ensure we give opportunities to as many Zambians as
possible to contribute to national building.

If some Zambians are allowed to serve as MPs and ministers for

30 years, when will the other 17 million Zambians get the
opportunity to serve in those positions? It is not right for the
country. We need to bring about a scenario where as some of
our people become older and better experienced, they should
take up more positions of business owners, mentors and
consultants. They should leave certain opportunities for younger
people who are coming behind them to take up employment and
government positions.

My passion in developing young leaders goes beyond my desire

to stay in office. The pride of any good leaders is to see that those
that have been properly mentored take over and continue where
the older generation left off. From the UNIP days, the MMD days
and currently in the PF Government there has been no proper
succession plan for a generational leadership handover. I plan to
bring about a culture that nurtures a new generation of leaders.
Leadership must always have a succession plan. Over staying in
elective office at any level leads to stagnation and political
constipation.

- 172 -
- 173 -
 TWELVE
PROSPERITY THROUGH THE
AGRICULTURE SECTOR

- 174 -
“Zambia is well positioned to be a food basket for the
Eastern and Southern Africa region given its
abundant water and land resources. It is well located
with eight neighbouring countries, most of whom are
deficit food producers.”
-IAPRI 2016

- 175 -
Zambia as a country covers a span of 74million hectares
(753,000 square kilometres), of which 42 million hectares (58%)
are suitable for agriculture. Of the land suitable for agriculture,
only about 5.9 million hectares (14%) is currently being utilised
for cultivation44. In addition, only 30% of the land suitable for
irrigation agriculture is being utilised in Zambia. As a country at
the centre of the Southern African region, Zambia is well
`positioned to be the breadbasket of the region.

Currently, Zambia’s agriculture sector employs over 55.81% of

those employed. This workforce is however amongst the poorest
of our citizens as the majority engage in non-profitable small
scale agriculture that delivers very small incomes to our people.
Zambia is estimated to have 1.2 million small holder farmers.
48.9% (8.3 million) of Zambia’s 17 million people depend on
agriculture for their livelihood. This makes agriculture the single
most important sector in our country in terms of actual impact
on citizens’ livelihoods. If one wanted to eliminate at least 50%
poverty levels, the starting point has to be the agriculture sector.
The simple truth is if we were to get our agriculture sector right,
the impact on the well-being of our citizens will be phenomenal!

Somehow, agriculture is estimated to have contributed only 9.2%

($2.4 billion) to our national GDP of $26 billion in 201745. This
means each person employed in the agriculture sector
contributed an average of $1,500 or K15,000 towards Zambia’s
annual GDP in 2017. That’s embarrassingly too low.

44
World bank, Increasing Agriculture Resilience through better risk management in Zambia, 2018
45
IAPRI, Zambia Agriculture Status Report 2017
- 176 -
In Zambia the farmers are categorized by size of land cultivated
as follows:

# Category Definition by % of total of

land cultivated farmers
1 Commercial Farmer Above 10 30%
hectares
2 Emergent Farmer 5 to 10 hectares 10%
3 Small Scale Farmer 5 hectares and 60%
less
Table24: Categorisation of farmers by land cultivated

The fact that 70% of or farmers cultivate less than 10 hectares

explains a lot as to why Zambians in agriculture are struggling
financially.

For all its great natural advantages, Zambia has lamentably

failed to tap into its agricultural potential and is currently
experiencing a deteriorating agriculture sector. The 2017 and
2018 agricultural seasons in particular, have seen some of the
worst management regimes our agriculture sector has ever
witnessed since 2002 when FISP was introduced. From the year
2015, the government of Zambia has committed blunder upon
blunder leaving farmers and the entire nation wondering
whether there is a deliberate mission to destroy the agriculture
sector.

The next table details crop performance in 2016 and 2017

agriculture seasons. You will notice that our yields per hectare
are very low and there were a lot of negative developments in
terms of performance for a number of crops. For example in
2016 and 2017, average yield per hectare for maize was 2.19 and
1.72 tons respectively. When one considers the fact that the
average cultivated area for our small holder farmers is about 2
hectares, there is no way our farmers would prosper under these
circumstances! We can better use these two hectares more
profitably by choosing the right mix of crops and livestock to
grow on the 2 hectares.

- 177 -
 Area planted (ha) Yield rate (MT/ha)
Crop 2016/2017 2017/2018 % 2016/ 2017 %
change 2017 /201 change
8
Maize 1,644,741 1,392,546 (15.33) (21.57)
2.19 1.72
Maize for 8,316 15.94 (2.52)
seed 7,173 5.45 5.31
Maize for 2,274 (33.79) 1233
silage 3,434 0.12 1.58
Green 241 (12.64)
Maize 276 1.98
Sorghum 32,308 (4.21) (20.94)
33,728 0.51 0.41
Rice 34,217 2.74 9.09
33,303 1.15 1.26
Millet 49,105 (7.03) 6.61
52,820 0.62 0.66
Sunflower 97,851 (6.97) 1.87
105,184 0.48 0.49
Groundnuts 284,708 5.60 2.04
269,611 0.63 0.64
Soya beans 205,508 (11.28) (2.91)
231,630 1.52 1.47
Seed 118,763 4.50 (5.46)
cotton 113,649 0.79 0.74
Irish 1,867 85.77 (77.03)
potato 1,005 31.60 7.26
Virginia 6,273 20.29 (7.90)
Tobacco 5,215 2.32 2.13
Burley 7,787 43.45 (4.65)
Tobacco 5,428 1.55 1.48
Mixed 84,566 1.11 12.71
beans 83,635 0.55 0.62
Bambara 7,253 16.33 38.26
nuts 6,235 0.70 0.97
Cowpeas 14,022 (46.96) 3.53
26,438 0.47 0.49
Sweet 60,325 9.06 (18.69)
Potatoes 55,312 3.74 3.04
Wheat 21,709 (18.91) (27.13)
26,773 7.24 5.27
Barley 936 9.20 (28.45)
857 7.62 5.45
Popcorn 11,190 22.31 (1.22)
9,149 0.86 0.85
Table 25: National 2016/2017 Vs 2017/2018 Crop Forecast Survey, Area, Expected
Production46

46
Source: CSO , 2017/2018 Crop Forecast Survey, Area, Expected Production, Yield, Expected Sales
and Fertilizer used (National).
- 178 -
E-Voucher System

The e-voucher input distribution system was introduced in 2016

with the noble intention of making the FISP project more efficient
and beneficial to farmers and suppliers of agro inputs. E-
voucher system has unfortunately introduced some challenges
that have left a sizeable number of our farmers disappointed
beyond words. Quoting Jowit Saluseki writing for the Times of
Zambia:

“DURING the 2017/2018 farming season, the Government rolled

out a 100 per cent electronic-voucher system through the Farmer
Input Support Programme (FISP), with farmers contributing K400
while the State was supposed to pump in K1, 800 in the account
of each beneficiary. However despite it been a commendable
project, the e-voucher has had its own bottlenecks chief among
them delayed activation of cards by some financial institutions to
allow intended benefactors to redeem the inputs on time from
agro- dealers.
The e-voucher card is an electronic card used by farmers to
access farm inputs such as seed and fertilizer from agro-dealers.
One of the key objectives of the e-voucher system is to promote
the diversification agenda by exposing beneficiaries to a variety
of farming implements, unlike the previous conventional FISP
which started in 2002/2003 that only allowed the targeted
farmers to access maize seed and fertilizers.
With the coming of the e-voucher system, farmers are meant to
access different seeds such as groundnuts, rice, maize, fertilizers,
stock feeds and chemicals, among other items.
The e-voucher system was also aimed at removing some farmers
from the system who were not the intended beneficiaries.
However, like any new system, the recent e-voucher programme
was besieged with numerous challenges which if not addressed
urgently, can in future result in the decline of the contribution to
national food production by farmers under the FISP.
Various stakeholders have raised concerns on the implementation
of the e-voucher cards with the Millers Association of Zambia
(MAZ) worried that the delay in activating the cards under FISP,
could affect the amount of yields.
- 179 -
MAZ president Andrew Chintala notes that the delay in the
activation of cards during the just ended farming season was a
recipe for crop failure stressing that the e-voucher needed to be
addressed properly to avert the recurrent of hiccups in redeeming
agro inputs. Besides that there are fears among stakeholders
that the impending flash floods recently announced by the
Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) may result in a
reduction of the crop to be harvested.
Needless to mention that in the 2015/2016farming season the
country implemented a pilot e-voucher programme catering for
241,000 farmers across 13 districts in Southern, Lusaka, Central
and Copperbelt provinces.
Nonetheless, last year, it took President Edgar Lungu to discover
that some farmers had not received inputs midway into the
farming season.
Some school of thought believe therefore that the people tasked
with the implementation of the e-voucher should have taken note
of the challenges faced to avoid a repetition of the same.
They attest that the fact that some farmers were yet to access the
farming inputs even as late as January during the 2017/2018
was a worry to the country. This is because if
farmers could not plant their crops on time, harvest is also likely
to be adversely affected and subsequently food security too.
It is worth noting that the e-voucher is a noble feat which is
premised on allowing farmers to access different seeds other than
maize, fertilizers, stock feeds and chemicals from agro-dealers
upon presentation of the card that is redeemed when collecting
the inputs. The system is being hosted by the Electronic
Government division commonly known as Smart Zambia Institute,
and participating banks and agro-dealers who are supposed to
be fully integrated.
During the 2017/2018 farming season, it was envisioned that all
the targeted one million beneficiaries under the FISP project
would access their input through the e-voucher system. However,
in some areas some farmers had difficulties in accessing the
inputs despite making their contribution due to numerous
challenges ranging from inability by participating banks to deliver
the cards on time despite capturing data from farmers, delayed
uploading of Government funding to the system, to the „locking‟
- 180 -
 process whereby the e-voucher cards issued by certain financial
institutions could not be recognised by the Point of Sales (PoS)
machine belonging to a different bank.
Examples on this shortcoming abounds chief among them
being an incident when Electronic Government division Smart
Zambia Institute-ICTs Permanent Secretary Martine Mtonga and
his Central Province counterpart Chanda Kabwe visited some
banks and agro dealers in Chisamba, Chibombo, Kabwe and
Kapiri Mposhi districts in December last year.
Whist most participating banks and agro dealers had fully
integrated to the national agriculture system some banks
allegedly delayed to upload Government funding, hence farmers
were only able to redeem inputs worth their K400.00 contribution,
while the Government‟s contribution indicated that money was
available but could not be accessed.
At Dely Agro Limited in Kabwe, Martha Banda had accessed the
card under a named bank but could only get one 50kg bag of
fertilizer costing K250 since Government contribution was not yet
ready.
At Be-Jack Farmers‟ Friends Limited in Kapiri Mposhi, Musonda
Chibwe had his card issued by another named bank rejected at a
PoS obtained from a different financial institution.
Thus arising from the bottlenecks which had been experienced in
the recent past, lessons should be learnt to avert future hiccups in
implementing the e-voucher system.
This is because the agro sector is one of the largest employer and
the low contribution of 10 per cent to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) calls for radical strategies to improve production and
productivity as well as increase value addition along sub-sector
value chains.
The agriculture sector is critical for achieving diversification,
economic growth and poverty reduction in Zambia.
It is with this in mind that stakeholders expected that the pilot
programme last season should have provided enough lessons to
smoothen the process during the just ended farming season47.

47
Times of Zambia, challenges of e-voucher system through FISP, 2nd March, 2018.
- 181 -
The teething problems posed by the e-voucher system have
indeed began to affect the yields in Zambia. Quoting Mr.
Kennedy Kaputo, Mambwe District Agriculture Coordinator
(DACO) in Muchinga Province:

“The country recorded 3,606,549 metric tonnes of maize

production in the 2016 – 2017 farming season as compared to the
2017- 2018 season that has seen a huge reduction of 33.6
percent with the produce standing at 2,394,907 metric tonnes,” 48

According to experts, Zambia’s agriculture sector has failed to

live up to its potential mainly due to the following:

1. Poor administration of the FISP program which result in

Inputs delays, which ultimately affects yields.
2. Low productivity49. The majority of the small scale farmers
cultivate an average of 2 hectares and use hoes and other
hand held implements to farm.
3. Too much focus on one crop. Zambia’s farmers tend to
overly focus on maize growing at the expense of other
crops.
4. Difficulties in accessing reliable markets.
5. Poor farm produce prices and delays in payments.
6. Transportation and Storage challenges for farmers in the
remote areas.

My proposed agriculture sector

The biggest ultimate problem in our agriculture sector is low

productivity which expectedly delivers poverty without fail.
Secondly, even when our farmers produce the little they manage
to produce, finding fair prices and reliable market is a serious
challenge. Our farmers are producing and selling too little and at
low prices making it difficult to achieve prosperity. If we can
move the productivity of our 1.6 million citizens employed in the
agriculture sector from the current $1,500 to $15,000, we are

48
https://www.lusakatimes.com/2018/05/09/maize-production-for-2017-2018-season-reduces-by-33-6/
49
https://www.africanfarming.com/zambias-smallholder-farmers-complexities-government-support/
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looking at our agriculture sector posting $24 billion contribution
to our national GDP compared to the current paltry $2.4 billion.
Our primary focus in revolutionising our agriculture sector must
be to increase productivity per every person working in the
agriculture sector by at least 10 times. With the necessary
support and policy incentives, Zambians can do this!

Market and Pricing

But before we go full throttle with pushing our productivity, we

need to look at the end of the equation. And that is at the market
side of things. When we increase agriculture production by 10
times, how do we ensure there is sufficient market at good prices
for our farmers? We don’t want to increase production and then
most of it just goes to waste with our farmers suffering losses
due to low market prices. To ensure stable and reliable market
and prices, we need to identify cash crops and other farm
produce with sufficient local and regional markets. Our market
outlook cannot be Zambia alone. It has to be Africa. We must
identify crops that offer opportunities for processing and
packaging with extended shelf life. Maize, cotton, soya-beans,
tobacco, tea, coffee, fruits, honey, fish, beef, mutton, chicken
pork and others fit this description.

We must then set up buying and processing centres to buy,

process, package and distribute agro produce in bulk. These
must be private companies that will be supported to set up by
the Zambian government if need be. We must do this in every
province. We must determine a minimum price at which buyers
will purchase farm produce from our farmers. It has to be a price
that enables a farmer to earn a good profit. We want a scenario
where everything produced by our farmers will be bought and at
a good price! We must also ensure our farmers are paid within 1
month of supplying their produce; or if delayed at least within
two months.

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After taking care of the market side of things, we can then go all
out to increase productivity and our production volumes.

Increasing Productivity

As a starting point, it is important that we begin to put on the

table what it is our agriculture can really deliver if properly
managed. Remember, that we are operating with the entire Africa
as our market. The following table shows our current statistics
for key agro-produce and live-stock together with what I have
chosen as our targets within specified time periods.

The first table highlights our current animal stocks together with
what I propose should be our minimum stocks within specified
periods of time. I am certain that these targets are very much
achievable with the political-will and appropriate investments
that I propose to pursue.

Type Current herd/stock New Target Period

1 Cattle 3,654,668 10,000,000 10 years
2 Goats 3,476,790 10,000,000 5 years
3 Sheep 165,243 2,000,000 5 years
4 Fish50 5,764 tons 100,000 2 years
tons
5 Pigs 996,390 5,000,000 3 years
Table 26: Current livestock in Zambia51 and new targets

Table 27 below details estimated latest production figures for

various crops together with our targets based on new policies,
political will and effective investments.

50
For fish, the figures relate to current fish production and projected fish production from fish farming.
51
CSO, Preliminary Livestock & Aquaculture Census Results, 2018
- 184 -
 Crop/Produce Current New Target Period
Production52 (Tonnes)
1 Maize 3,606,549 10,000,000 2 years
2 Groundnuts 168,699 500,000 2 years
3 Sunflower 50,220 200,000 2 years
4 Cotton 89,293 500,000 2 years
5 Soya beans 351,416 1,000,000 2 years
6 Wheat 193,713 500,000 3 years
7 Burley Tobacco 8,416 20,000 2 years
8 Virginia Tobacco 12,079 30,000 2 years
9 Rice 38,423 200,000 2 years
10 Sorghum 17,337 100,000 2 years
12 Millet 32,566 50,000 2 years
13 Mixed Beans 45,938 100,000 2 years

Table 27: Latest crop production and proposed new targets

The targets in the two tables imply significant positive social and
macro-economic shifts for our country. Achievement of these
targets implies wealthier citizens, better forex earnings and a
stronger national GDP. With these targets, what will remain now
is to navigate what policies, investments and actions we need to
undertake to deliver the targets. The following step will be vital in
ensuring our targets are achieved:

1. Set up a minimum of one agri-city in each province. That is

a minimum of 10 agri-cities, in total. Agri-cities are going
to be vital markets, processing and distribution centres for
agro-produce.
2. Impose an effective extension services regime by ensuring
more personnel is employed and housed in decent housing
and supplied with effective equipment and transportation.
The mission of our extension officers will be to train our
small holder farmers towards higher productivity.
3. Increase small holder farmer productivity by introducing
effective farming methods, growing suitable crops,
increasing the land cultivated and diversifying into
livestock farming.
52
CSO, Zambia in figures, 2018

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Livestock

According to the latest census on livestock, the following are the

current stocks of livestock and the number of households
keeping these livestock. The table also gives the average number
of animals kept by each household.

# Type of Current Number of Average number of

livestock national stock households animals per
household
1 Cattle 3,654,668 348,966 10
2 Goats 3,476,790 497,922 7
3 Sheep 165,243 20,288 8
4 Pigs 996,390 202,180 5

Table 28: Average household animal stock based on current figures

To achieve the targeted animal stock figures will require average

animal stock per household to be as follows:

Average number of
Type of Target Number of
# animals per
livestock national stock households
household

1 Cattle 10,000,000 348,966 29

2 Goats 10,000,000 497,922 20
3 Sheep 2,000,000 50,000 40
4 Pigs 5,000,000 202,180 25

Table 29: Average household animal stock based on our target figures

In terms of productivity and promotion of prosperity for Zambian

households, it is important to relate the number of animals that
each household should keep as breeding stock. For example if
we set as a standard, that each household should earn a
minimum of K150,000 every year from the sale of livestock, the
number of animals they will need to sale is as given in table 30.

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Table 30: calculations of ideal annual revenues per type animal per household

Based on table 30, each household will need the following

minimum breeding stock to attain this and also allow room for
stock growth.

# Type of livestock Minimum Breeding stock

1 Cattle 60
2 Goats 250
3 Sheep 250
4 Pigs 30

Table 31: Proposed minimum breeding stock per type animal per household

The implication is that these are the minimum breeding stocks

that each household should attain in order for our country to
reach our targeted animal stock levels and also to propel our
livestock keeping households to a minimum productivity level of
$15,000 per year from livestock farming.

Livestock growth strategy

To push our livestock levels to and beyond our targets, we must

pursue the following:

1. Deploy extension officers around the country with the sole

mission of disseminating information to equip farmers to
engage in better and profitable livestock farming.
2. Aggressively deploy sufficient support services such as dip
tanks and veterinary services around the country.

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 3. Establish livestock towns in each province starting with
Southern, Eastern and Luapula Provinces and then the
rest of the country.
4. Establish fish farming towns in each province.
5. As processing centres, packaging & distribution centres,
Livestock and fish farming towns will form reliable and
effective markets for livestock farmers.
6. Aggressively promote livestock farming as a viable business
and rapidly absorb youths into this sub-sector. This will be
most effectively done through livestock towns.

Figure 10: Suitable livestock in different provinces of Zambia.

Figure 10 gives areas that are regarded as having potential for

livestock farming. As you can notice, this is old information
which does not reflect the fact that Zambia now has 10 provinces
and obviously, new studies now show that provinces such as
Central Province can equally accommodate livestock.

All in all, the summary strategy for my proposed agriculture

sector is:

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 1. Invest adequately in agriculture to ensure more area is
cultivated and better yields are achieved per hectare.
2. Invest in establishing reliable market for agro produce.
3. Invest in processing capacity for agro produce.
4. Establishing effective export channels for agro produce.

Pursuing Organic farming as a niche

World over, it has become a health trend for people to prefer

organically grown food as opposed to foods grown using
synthetic fertilisers and chemicals. In America and Europe, for
example, organically grown food fetches a premium of about 3
times the price of synthetically grown foods. Even in Zambia, due
to education and awareness, most people are agreed that organic
food is preferred to synthetically grown food.

Humans have begun to appreciate organically grown food for

several reasons. Primary amongst the reasons is the fact that
synthetically grown food has been found to contribute to
occurrences of such conditions as cancer and obesity.
Organically grown food has been found to be safer and healthier.
As things stand, most people, if they had a choice, would prefer
to consume organic foods than the other way round.

For the sake of the health of our people and as a strategic

business positioning issue, we must pursue organic agriculture
as a matter of policy. Zambia must go organic in crops and
livestock. Currently, the biggest inputs that go into agriculture
are synthetic fertilisers and chemicals. In choosing to go organic,
it goes without saying that we must replace synthetic fertilisers
with organic fertilisers. New technologies now exist that can
make it possible to produce organic fertilizers right here in
Zambia at competitive costs.

It is estimated that Zambia consumes about 500,000 metric

tonnes of fertiliser annually. Index Mundi reports that in 2018, a
tonne of ammonium Phosphate was going for $410 on the

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international market53. Add middlemen, transportation and
customs, it should be conceivable that our fertilizer import bill is
beyond $300 million every year. In fact Trade Economics
reported that according to the United Nations COMTRADE
database, Zambia imported fertilizers worth $540.86 million in
the year 201754.

When we set up organic fertilizer factories to completely supply

all farmers around the country, we are looking at an industry
that has capacity to support as many as 50,000 jobs in fertiliser
manufacture, packaging, distribution and retail.

What we know without any doubt is that it is possible that

within 2 years, Zambia can be producing its own fertilisers 100%
without needing to import.

Forestry farming strategy

One of the greatest assets our country has, is our forests. As a

nation, we have not harnessed this asset well enough to benefit
the entire citizenry. As things stand, foreigners and a few
number of Zambians are extracting the most benefits at the
expense of an entire nation. I propose an approach to forestry
Management that will be aimed at boosting our forests,
encouraging the planting of fruit trees and minimising the
cutting down of trees for charcoal burning. This will be done
towards achieving the best benefits from our forests.

Forests are vital for various reasons that include:

1. Preservation of the environment and fresh water bodies

2. Provision of forest foods such honey, mushrooms, wild
fruits, Mopani worms and others.
3. Forests can provide forex from the selling of timber
products.

A New Investment Philosophy For the Agriculture Sector

53
https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=dap-fertilizer
54
https://tradingeconomics.com/zambia/imports/fertilizers
- 190 -
America is known to spend over $20 billion in various subsidies
to American farmers every year. This level of expenditure
definitely caught my attention. Why would the American federal
government go out of its way to do this? On further
investigations, I discovered the following: American farmers
contributed about $136 billion to the USA economy in 2017.
Agriculture and food business together, contributed $992 billion
to the USA economy!55

What I then realised is that if the American government was to

tax the $992 billion at the rate of 10%, the USA government
would recover $99.2 billion in taxes which is far above the $20
billion spent on subsidising farmers. I soon realised that the $20
billion subsidies spent by the American government is tactical
investment and not a waste or a case of charity.

Because of the huge impact agriculture has on the population of

Zambia, our investment approach to the agriculture sector will
have to be more strategic. We must put in all the money required
to ensure our farmers produce higher yields and that they get
value for money for their produce. We must ensure we invest all
the necessary funds needed for the cattle keeping farmers in
Southern and Eastern provinces to have adequate dip tanks,
veterinary services and abattoirs. By so doing, we know the
Southern province farmers will have more cattle to sell thereby
directly boosting our economy and tax revenues.

We must ensure all the necessary capacity is in place to process

any excess agro-produce and export to the regional and
continental Market. We must support our entrepreneurs in the
agro business to play an active part in ensuring farm inputs are
well priced, delivered on time and that agro produce fetch good
prices for our farmers.

We must do this with a clear understanding that if we support

and stimulate the agriculture and food industry, our economy

55
https://www.agweb.com/article/food--ag-industry-contributes-992-billion-to-us-economy-naa-ben-potter/
- 191 -
will reap more benefits than the financial resources we will
invest by way of subsidies.

We must be particularly aggressive about investing in the

agriculture sector because this will directly positively affect the
lives of more than 8.3 million citizens who rely on agriculture for
their livelihoods.

Need to bench mark with Israel

Israel has some of the highest productivity levels in the

agriculture industry globally. It was estimated that in 2018,
Israel produced $9 billion worth of agricultural produce. What
was most phenomenal was the fact that, Israel only had about
44,000 people employed in the agriculture sector! This implies
productivity levels of $205,000 per farm worker every year. At
our current Kwacha- dollar exchange rate, we are talking over K2
million Kwacha! Now if a single farm worker can generate this
much value in a year, will he not be entitled to a great quality
life?!

Israeli agriculture is internationally renowned for their

innovations and ground-breaking achievements. Organic
agriculture, high yields, natural pest control and many more
achievements, Israel is a world leader at a global scale. This is
against the background that Israel as a country, does not have
the best of agricultural land. Israel is practically a desert
country. As Zambia, we have far better conditions to carry-out
more successful agriculture than Israel.

Definitely, we have a lot to learn from Israel and we have no

choice but to actively pursue this. We must go as far as coming
up with bi-lateral agreements that will see our youths training in
Israel as apprentices. We must sponsor university students to go
and do agriculture related studies in Israel.

- 192 -
- 193 -
 THIRTEEN
MOBILIZING THE INFORMAL SECTOR
FOR NATIONAL PROSPERITY

- 194 -
 “When well cultivated and properly organised,
utilised and directed, the informal sector possesses
the most remarkable tool for connecting to the people
and attaining both social and economic power. That
tool is: the sheer will to survive!”
-KBF

According to statistics available from government agencies,

Zambia has about 2.9 million people in employment. About 2.2
million of these are in the informal sector. This means 76% of all

- 195 -
employed Zambians are working in the informal sector! Some of
the major groupings in the informal sector include the following:

1. Farmers
2. Marketeers, vendors and hawkers.
3. Bus and taxi drivers and conductors

Yes, we also have many other informal sector workers including

carpenters, builders, brick moulders, metal fabricators, hair
stylists, maids, garden boys, welders, plumbers, electricians,
restaurant owners and others too numerous to mention.

A close look at the informal sector groupings reveal that our

people in the informal sector also represent a section of our
population most affected by poverty. Agriculture alone employs
55.8% of employed Zambia. Unfortunately the biggest portion of
our poor citizens relies on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Poverty levels in rural areas hovers over 76% precisely because
the rural population heavily depends on agriculture.

The numerous minibus drivers on our roads only get about

K1,500 monthly salaries. It’s anyone’s guess how much a
conductor gets but without doubt, our brothers in the passenger
transport business are struggling financially.

Due to limited capital and a congested market space, our citizens

plying their trade at our various markets generate little revenues
not enough to afford them decent livelihoods.

It should be common sense that any leadership genuinely

interested in changing Zambia’s economic landscape and
exterminating poverty, must focus on our many citizens in the
informal sector. The greatest investments have to be directed
towards our people in the informal sector because when we
improve the informal sector, we are likely to practically solve
80% of our poverty problems as a country. Personally I have
resolved to direct much energy in transforming the informal
sector because of the fact that the benefits to the nation are

- 196 -
phenomenal. Literally speaking, the government of Zambia must
begin to spend more money towards improving the environment
in the informal sector.

In the immediate preceding chapter, Interventions for

transforming the agriculture sector have been comprehensively
discussed. I will therefore focus on other informal sector groups
in this Chapter. It is my estimate that besides farming, we have
over 1 million Zambians involved in the numerous informal
sector activities.

You need to understand that people in the informal sector are

hard-working Zambians who have refused to stay home and
suffer hunger and indignity of begging from others. These are
Zambians who have chosen to use initiative to feed and educate
their families. These are Zambians who brave the harsh weather
and operate in the heat and rains on a daily basis just to earn a
living for their families. Many of these Zambians are on the road
by 4am to go and secure stock for the day. The minibus driver
and conductor are on the road by 4am every day to pick up and
transport our mothers and sisters as they rush to purchase
stock. This is way before many of us even wake up. They do this
every day for 365 days every year!

Our people in the informal sector are amongst the most

courageous entrepreneurs we have in this country. These are
Zambians we need to respect and support in every way possible.
These are Zambians who are significantly contributing to our
economy with very little support from government. Some people
with little understanding think Zambians in the informal sector
do not pay taxes. I want to dismiss this ignorance by highlighting
the fact that every time our citizens in the informal sector buy
meali-meal, sugar, salt, bread, electricity and many other
necessities of life, they pay tax. They are bona fide tax payers!

When I look at the discipline, dedication and hard work

displayed by our mothers, fathers and youths working in the

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informal sector, I find myself challenged and provoked to deep
thoughts.

What can we do as a country to ensure that our hard working

Zambians in the informal sector are able to earn enough incomes
to afford a decent life?

If these courageous and hardworking Zambians can work with

such discipline and despite the harsh environment, manage to
put food on the table year in year out without support from
government, how much more can they achieve if we gave them a
little support? How much more will they contribute to our
economy if we made it possible for them to operate in a better
business environment?

My discussions with bus drivers, conductors and marketeers

reveal that these groupings are grappling with the following
major challenges:

1. Lack of low interest loans to grow their businesses.

2. High congestion and insufficient trading places in the
various markets.
3. Failure to generate sufficient incomes to cover basic needs.
4. Poor sanitation services and lack of clean water.
5. Lack of pension savings.
6. Lack of access to low interest formal financial services.
7. Lack of proper and organized representation.
8. Lack of baby-sitting facilities for nursing mothers.
9. Intimidation/oppression by political party cadres.
10. Poor housing.

If we have 1 million Zambians working in the informal sector

other than agriculture, I can assure you that more than 5 million
Zambians are benefiting from their labor and sweat. That is if we
assume that every family has an average of 5 people. Of course
you and I know that we have families with 10 and in some cases,
even 15 people in one yard. The livelihood and well-being of 5
million Zambians is a very significant issue for me.
- 198 -
Now, Imagine that every single woman, man and youth who
works in the informal sector could manage to make a profit or
get a salary of K5,000 every month to support his or her family.
Can you imagine what impact that will have on the lives of 5
million Zambians? I am saying imagine that every woman who
sells maize by the roadside or vegetables at City Market could
manage to have K5,000 to spend on her family every month, out
of her business; how many families will be out of poverty in this
country? Can you imagine what it would mean to their families if
every taxi and minibus driver could afford to walk away with
K5,000 every month from their work?

One thing I am sure of without any doubt is that if we supported

some of these Zambians with a little capital, they will put that
money to good use and not waste it! They know the value of
money from their many years of hustling on the streets. They
know the pain of borrowing working capital at 20% per month.
Every ngwee is valuable to them. If they are not wasting the little
capital they own, they will definitely not waste the help we shall
give them. That, I am sure of!

So what can we do as a country to ensure our citizens in the

informal sector are assisted to grow their businesses and
revenues to improve their livelihood and exterminate poverty in
this country? I am sure many of them aspire to grow their
businesses and leave the streets and the congested markets.
They have gained the critical practical business experience
required. I can assure you that these Zambians have attained
business degrees from the real life business universities of the
streets and the markets.

What can we do to transform some of these disciplined and hard-

working Zambians into formal sector employers? How can we
help them graduate from the markets, streets and road sides
into retail shops, butcheries and workshops as organized, formal
and tax paying businesses?

- 199 -
I refuse to believe that our people cannot run the retail shops
run by the Rwandese, Indians, Chinese and Lebanese in our
various communities. I refuse to believe that if we supported our
people adequately, they would fail to run the brick making
operations being run by the Somalians and Lebanese in our
country. No, I refuse to believe that!

What I want Zambians to know is that those Rwandese, Indians,

Somalians, Chinese and Lebanese that are running the shops,
restaurants and brick making businesses in our many
townships around the country, have a support network that
makes it possible for them to set up these businesses. Many of
them have access to low or even no interest loans given to them
by their governments, friends and relatives.

When a Chinese sets up a business in Zambia using a loan, you

can be rest assured that the interest on that loan is less than 5%
per year. A Zambian marketeer on the other hand can only afford
to get a loan of 10% to 20% interest per month. This translates
into 120% to 240% interest per year! How do you expect our
people to compete with the Chinese?! In most cases, our people
are only working for the money lender.

As a country, we need to wake up and rise up to support our

own to grow their enterprises for the benefit of the entire nation.
Personally this is what I want to see in the informal sector:

1. I want to see the women who have been sitting in the sun
for over 5 years at City market selling vegetables and
Kapenta to upgrade to owning stores that sell vegetables,
Kapenta, fish and goat meat! It is the same business but at
a slightly bigger scale.
2. I want to see all those Zambians who are currently selling
meat in the open air and unsafe environment to graduate
to owning clean, refrigerated and fully-fledged butchery
stores.

- 200 -
 3. I want to see my young brothers who have been employed
as taxi and minibus drivers to graduate to owning their
own buses and taxis and begin to work for themselves.
4. I want to see every Zambian who decides that they would
like to join the informal sector finding a space to trade from
in our markets and other designated places.
5. I want to see specially identified and well managed areas in
our Central Business Districts (CBD), set aside for vendors.
6. I want to see my young brothers on Katondo streets joining
hands to own registered, legitimate money changing
businesses. Bureau de changes.
7. I want to see our people owning and running fully-stocked
tuck-shops, retail shops, restaurants and wholesale outlets
in our numerous communities.
8. I want to see our people in the informal sector have access
to cheap loans to grow their businesses.
9. I want to see every Zambian working in the informal sector
be assisted to own a decent house.

We can achieve all this by pursuing the following:

1. Establish a dedicated department under the Ministry of

Commerce and Trade to manage and finance the growth of
informal sector businesses.
2. Use the power of their huge numbers to establish
cooperative banks to be owned by people in the informal
sector to create access to cheap working capital for
themselves.
3. I propose to establish a $100 million revolving fund to help
support the upgrading of our entrepreneurs in the informal
sector. This fund should be used to finance the purchase of
buses for bus drivers and to help some of our people
graduate from hawking to owning shops, butchery stores,
restaurants, financial services and other formal
businesses.
4. Establish well managed, dedicated areas in our CBDs for
vendors to operate from.
- 201 -
Compatriots, if we did this, suddenly, we will have more
Zambians earning better incomes. That is more prosperity in the
country. Suddenly we will see a rapid growth in formal sector
businesses, employment and related tax revenues for the
government. Listen, when a woman graduates from selling
vegetables in the open sun at City Market to owning a shop, she
definitely needs to employ another person to assist her. When a
bus driver who used to work for someone else suddenly acquires
a bus of his own, that’s 2 new jobs created for him and a
conductor.

10,000 New Bus and Taxi Owners

I have a personal target of ensuring 10,000 Zambians acquire

their own buses or taxis and begin to work as their own bosses.
Remember that when a driver owns his bus, he does not need to
share revenues with an employer. This means he will have more
income for his family. This will lead to improved livelihoods for
many families. I propose to achieve this through the $100 million
Informal sector revolving fund. For this particular initiative,
buses and cars imported will come into the country duty free to
make them affordable.

Some Zambians will be asking questions like: where will the

government find the money to implement this? Ladies and
gentlemen, the money is there. What has been missing is vision
and discipline to guide our priorities. I will prove this fact to you.

If we can spend $395 million to build an airport in Ndola that

will only benefit a few hundred Zambians, surely spending $100
million on a program that will directly benefit millions of
Zambians is a better way of spending tax payers’ money, don’t
you think? A first class return ticket to America can cost more
than K100,000 for one person. Every single month, we have
government delegations and officials flying on foreign trips.
Sometimes they take as many as 50 people on these trips and
spend millions of kwacha on air tickets, accommodation,

- 202 -
allowances and food. Most of these trips bring no benefit to the
Zambian citizen sitting in the sun selling vegetables. If we reduce
the frequency and the number people who go on these trips by
80% we can save and avail as much as K10 million every month
to finance and help the over 1 million citizens currently in the
informal sector to grow their businesses. Yes, just like that!

Another strategy we can use to raise money is for the marketeers

and bus drivers and other informal sectors business owners to
begin putting money together to help themselves. They have the
numbers on their side.

Let’s imagine that City Market had 1,000 marketeers working

there. Let’s imagine that each of these marketeers was
committed to saving K5 everyday towards a ‘Chilimba like’ group
savings scheme. It would mean that this scheme would be
raising K5,000 every day and K150,000 every month. This
scheme would be raising K1.8 million every year.

If we had 1,000 bus drivers contributing K50 every day to a bus

ownership savings scheme, they will be raising K1,500,000 every
month. With this money, they can be bringing in 20 mini-buses
and 20 taxis every month. In 3 years each member would have
acquired a new bus!! That’s a lot of empowerment for our people.

It is amazing to observe that on a daily basis, the combined

masses of bus drivers from just 7 bus stations in Lusaka remit
about K100,000 to PF cadres. This money is remitted as part of a
revolving savings fund that is supposed to be given back to
drivers who make the contributions. Unfortunately, a significant
portion of this money is fraudulently hijacked and shared by PF
Cadres against the wishes of drivers. This money translates to
about K3 million per month or K36 million annually!

The pooled strength of Marketeers at City market alone have the

capacity to comfortably contribute K200,000 every month or

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K2.4 million every year towards a Chilimba56 savings
arrangement. This is a clear demonstration of the collective
financial muscle which these groupings possess.

With a focus on offering solutions to the many challenges facing

our citizens in the informal sector, I am committed to pursuing
the following steps:

1. Introduce a professional management regime that does not

intimidate and harass our hard working poor citizens at
markets and bus stations.
2. Establish Bus drivers and Marketeers Savings Funds as
two separate and independent funds. These will have to be
professionally run funds established for the following
objectives:
i. Allow members to borrow for specific needs such as
working capital and school fees. Interest rates should
be as low as 2% per month.
ii. Assist members to purchase buses or taxis on a
revolving basis (in case of bus drivers and
conductors).
iii. Assist members to own homes.
iv. Give members an agreed amount as funeral
assistance in case of a funeral.
v. Revolving lump-sum pay-outs to members based on
daily contributions. This will be done in typical
Chilimba style.
vi. Ensure bus stations and markets have clean water
and the best security, sanitation and garbage
collection services.
vii. Invest in selected businesses that have the most
benefit to members.

56
Chilimba is a savings concept where a group of people contribute savings to a collective fund. Every member
then take turns in receiving proceeds of this savings on a rotating basis.
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Proposed Investments

1. Money lending Services. These Services will only be

accessible to members and will be charged at a very low
interest rate of 2% per month.
2. Money transfer business. To be located at bus stations,
markets and residential areas, mobile money transfer will
be a strategic business for members. Besides availing
members a cheap way to transfer funds, the business will
generate revenue to the benefit of members.
3. Property development. These funds can secure plots for
residential settlements and build affordable homes to sale
to members on flexible payment terms. The funds can
operate on the underlining mission that each and every
member desiring to own a home will be supported to make
this a reality.
4. Day Care Centres. Day care centres can be established
near market places for nursing working mothers to keep
their babies. The day care centres will be accessed by
members at highly subsidised fees.
5. Schools. The funds can invest in the establishment of high
quality schools to be accessed by members at a reduced
price.
6. Health services. The fund can establish Health Centres
which will be assessed by members and their family for
free. Non-members would have to pay for the services.

Going by the estimated number of markets and bus stations

around the country, and assuming that each of these will
have Fund officials operating there, this agenda will easily
create 10,000 new jobs in the country and join the ranks of
big employers in the country.

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 FOURTEEN
RESTRUCTURING ZAMBIA’S ECONOMY
TOWARDS CITIZENS’ DOMINANCE

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 “If Zambians owned and managed the mines and
produced even as low as 30% of the current
production, at least $2 billion will come and stay in
our economy from mineral sales. This is far better
than the 5% our government is getting from the mining
industry”

-Mauden Shula

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The Zambian economy is currently structured in such a way that
ultimately, a big part of our revenues are finding their way
outside our country! We are spending more money outside the
country than the money coming in. The overall effect is that
cash-flow has become scarce in our economy. An average
Zambian is complaining of the fact that there is no money on the
streets. It is becoming a regular expression among Zambians.

The following are the main ways in which Zambia is losing its
revenues:

1. Revenue from our copper and other mineral exports do not

come back to Zambia but are kept in Switzerland and other
countries. Only an insignificant portion to take care of local
operational issues finds its way back to Zambia. Zambia’s
Exports are about $7.5 billion of which 75% or $6 billion is
from copper sales alone.57 Currently, the government of
Zambia only earns a mere 5% or $300 million of this value
in mineral royalties.
2. 80% of major construction contracts are awarded to foreign
owned firms who remit most of these funds to their
countries of origin. Most of the money for these contracts
doesn’t even touch Zambia but is paid out into foreign
accounts. You are looking at billions of dollars’ worth
annually.
3. When Zambians get their salaries every month, a
significant number of them go to do their shopping from
foreign owned shops found at our favourite shopping malls
around the country. Most products found in these shops
are imported from other countries.
4. We don’t have a textiles industry and thereby import 95%
of our clothing and textiles needs as a country.
5. We are importing fuel worth $1 billion annually.
6. We are importing fertiliser worth over $500 million
annually.

57
http://www.worldstopexports.com/zambias-top-10-exports/
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 7. Importation of goods that can be produced from within
Zambia. Fish, construction materials and other basic food
stuffs top the list.

There is no doubt that these funds are supporting hundreds of

thousands of jobs in other countries. These jobs are supposed to
be for Zambians.

In 2017, Zambia imported goods worth $8.1 billion58 and the

biggest contributors to these imports where fuel, machinery and
foodstuff. If we arranged our economy in such a way that a
significant portion of our revenues from mineral sales came back
and circulated in our economy and also ensure we begin to
produce most of the food stuffs and other items that we
unnecessarily import, we will have more funds circulating in our
economy. More funds circulating in our economy simply means
more cash-flow to support enterprise and jobs for our citizens.

At a leadership level, we have not provided direction and political

will to return local control of our economy. We have been too
careless in accepting that our country should spend billions of
dollars on importing even basic things such as fruits. It is
nothing but scandalous that Zambia is still importing avocadoes,
mangoes, pine apples and paw paws from South Africa! We have
allowed our economy to be infiltrated and exploited by foreign
interests in so many ways to the extent that it now seems like
Zambia is the Promised Land for foreign nationals and the land
of Egypt for Zambians. The following are areas in our economy
that are absolutely dominated by foreigners:

1. Banking
2. Mining
3. Manufacturing
4. Wholesale
5. Block making
6. Commercial farming

58
http://www.worldstopexports.com/zambias-top-10-exports/
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 7. Fuelling Stations
8. Property Development
9. Construction
10. Tourism
11. Telecommunication

It is amazing that foreigners are dominating the retail space even

in our compounds such as Mutendere, Kabanana, Chaisa, Misisi
and many others!

Surprisingly, of the listed areas that foreign nationals are

dominating, there is no area that one can say: Zambians are
incapable of venturing into. With the greatest of respect, this is a
result of incompetent national leadership. It is now time we
shifted the focus on steps to return our economy to the Zambian
people. Zambia must benefit Zambians first and foremost. Any
other proposition is simply immoral and a dereliction of duty by
leaders including those in opposition who have continuously
failed to offer alternative policies.

What I am proposing is not a policy to chase out foreign players

from the Zambian commercial space but rather to restore the
correct balance. It should not be acceptable that people who
form less than 5%59 of our population should dominate our
economic space to the extent that they do today. This is grossly
unacceptable and immoral! Zambians must have at least 90%
ownership and control of any sector of the economy. This is non-
negotiable.

In 2016, mining, manufacturing, construction, Financial

services, wholesale and retail contributed a combined 56% to our
GDP60. Foreign interests dominate these sectors.

I must say that we are where we are as a nation not because of

any sinister agenda by any foreign elements but simply because
of negligence and a lack of wisdom on our part as Zambians. The

59
Wikipedia, Demographics of Zambia, 2016
60
Source: Zambia in figures 2018
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choice before us is to look at the situation holistically and take
measures to correct this anomaly. This can and must be done
without alienating the hard working foreign business people.
Things that we must decisively consider include pertinent issues
such as the following:

1. Which are the key sectors that foreign interests control?

2. Why are foreigners dominating these sectors?
3. Why are Zambians not dominating these sectors?
4. Why are foreigners encroaching even on simple businesses
such as brick making, tuck-shops and chicken rearing?

These questions are vital because we do not want to prescribe

wrong interventions to genuine challenges. As we plan to pursue
foreign markets as part of our growth strategy, we do not want to
pursue anti-foreigner behaviour and expect better treatment
when we enter foreign markets.

Our strategic outlook therefore is to fully understand why our

nationals are not competing well in key economic sectors as
compared to foreigners. Is it that our people lack capital or is it
simply a matter of a lack of knowledge and interest in certain
businesses? With this in mind, our strategic focus must be to
ensure we do the following:

1. Educate our citizens on the importance of getting involved

in certain sectors.
2. Avail avenues to train our citizens in running these sectors
3. Create eco-systems that assimilate our citizens into each
supply chain level of these sectors.
4. Create effective business financing specifically targeted at
supporting our citizens to venture into identified sectors.

In other words, we will not chase investors in the mining

business but we will offer sufficient support to our citizens to
begin competing in the mining sector. We will not engage in
practices that frustrate those who have invested in the banking
sector but we will ensure we support our citizens to establish
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successful banks until we have Zambians dominating these
sectors. It is our estimation that the above measures will create
the environment to support a further creation of 20,000 new
jobs annually.

Planned Interventions to Return Ownership of Mineral

Wealth into Zambian Hands.

Abdicating ownership and control of our mineral wealth is one of

the greatest oversights Zambia’s past leaders have ever
committed. As things stand, we have a duty and task to embark
on a systematic agenda to ensure Zambians own and benefit
from a minimum of 90% of our mineral wealth. The current
situation is a travesty that should be addressed with the
seriousness of a heart attack! Mining generates the single-most
largest revenues in our economy but these revenues are in the
hands of foreign interests! This can never be a „business as
usual‟ situation. Going forward, we will embark on the following
interventions towards turning the balance in favour of Zambians:

1. Begin sensitizing Zambian mining professionals on the

need for them to own and manage mines.
2. Actively support and finance new mining ventures owned
by Zambians.
3. Actively seek increase of government’s shareholding in
foreign controlled mining operations.
4. Create capacity in local financial institutions to finance
major mining operations.
5. Create financial, technical and management capacity for
citizens to takeover in cases were foreign interests abandon
viable mining operations.

One specific avenue we are seriously looking into is the

mathematics of reducing tax rates in the mining sector in
exchange for increased government shareholding in our
country’s major mines. But whichever way you look at it, we are
getting back control of our mineral wealth as a country!

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- 213 -
 FIFTEEN
STRATEGIC ENERGY SECTOR
REFORMS

- 214 -
 “The whole of Europe, many parts of America and
Asia have taken decisive measures to wean
themselves off fossil fuels. They consider this, a major
strategic economic issue. It is alarming to note that
Zambia and Africa at large seem oblivious to these
emerging energy dynamics and are not making any
significant plans in this regard!!”
-Mauden Shula

- 215 -
As earlier mentioned, in 2017 Zambia recorded import values of
$8.1 billion. Fuel accounted for about 15% of these imports and
was the single biggest component. According to the Minister of
Energy at the time, Mr. Mathew Nkuwa, Zambia uses fuel worth
$1 billion every year61. Statistics from ERB indicated that in
2016, Zambia consumed about 463 million litres of unleaded
petrol alone.

The developed world has been making bold strides towards

replacing fossil oil as a major source of fuel. Alternatives such as
bio-fuel and electricity have become serious strategic
replacements for fossil oil based fuels. There is currently a
serious on-going race amongst auto-manufacturers to produce
more and more efficient electric vehicles as a strategic
competitive issue. Electric vehicles are environmentally cleaner
and are cheaper to run in the long run compared to fossil
petrol/diesel powered vehicles.

ELECTRIC MOTOR VEHICLES (EV)

As detailed on the website www.ergo.com.au62 the electric car

presents the following benefits:

Cheaper to run

Owners of an EV have the advantage of much lower running

costs. The electricity to charge an EV works out around a third
as much per kilometer as buying petrol for the same vehicle.

Cheaper to maintain

A battery electric vehicle (BEV) has a lot less moving parts than a
conventional petrol/diesel car. There is relatively little servicing
and no expensive exhaust systems, starter motors, fuel injection
systems, radiators and many other parts that aren’t needed in
an EV.

61
Hon. Mathew Nkuwa, speaking on Hot FM Radio Station, 3 October 2018
62
https://www.ergon.com.au/network/smarter-energy/electric-vehicles/benefits-of-electric-vehicles
- 216 -
With just one moving part – the rotor –EVs are particularly
simple and very strong. Just maintain the brakes, tyres and
suspension and that’s about it.

Batteries do wear out so replacement batteries will eventually be

needed. Most car manufacturers warrant EV batteries for around
8 years.

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) have a petrol engine

that needs regular servicing so cost more to maintain. However,
because the electrical motor requires little maintenance due to
far fewer moving parts, this leads to less wear and tear of the
petrol engine components.

Better for the environment

Less pollution: By choosing to drive an EV you are helping to

reduce harmful air pollution from exhaust emissions. An EV has
zero exhaust emissions.

Eco-friendly materials: There is also a trend towards more eco-

friendly production and materials for EVs. The Ford Focus
Electric is made up of recycled materials and the padding is
made out of bio based materials. The Nissan Leaf’s interior and
bodywork are partly made out of green materials such as
recycled water bottles, plastic bags, old car parts and even
second hand home appliances.

Health benefits

Reduced harmful exhaust emissions is good news for our health.

Better air quality will lead to less health problems and costs
caused by air pollution. EVs are also quieter than petrol/diesel
vehicles, which means less noise pollution.

Safety improvements

Recent findings have shown that several EV features can

improve safety. EVs tend to have a lower center of gravity that
makes them less likely to roll over. They can also have a lower
- 217 -
risk for major fires or explosions and the body construction and
durability of EVs may make them safer in a collision.

Due to these reasons plus the reality that you cut out or reduce
fossil fuel requirements when you use electric cars, many
forward thinking nations have embarked on policies and changes
towards increasing the use of electric cars.

Quoting wikepedia:

In May 2017, India was the first to announce plans to sell

only electric vehicles by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's government kick-started the ambitious plan by
floating a tender to purchase 10,000 electric vehicles, hailed
as "the world‟s single-largest EV procurement initiative."
Along with fulfilling the urgent need to keep air pollution in
check, the Indian government aims at reducing the
petroleum import bill and running cost of vehicles. With
nearly a third of all cars sold in 2017 of all new cars either
fully electric or a hybrid, Norway is the world leader in the
adoption of electric cars and pushes to sell only electric or
hybrid cars by 2030. The other nations followed the lead,
with France and UK announcing the plan to ban the sale of
gas and diesel cars by 2040. Austria, China, Denmark,
Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Korea
and Spain have also set official targets for electric car sales.

Many governments offer incentives to promote the use of

electric vehicles, with the goals of reducing air pollution and
oil consumption. Some incentives intend to increase
purchases of electric vehicles by offsetting the purchase
price with a grant. Other incentives include lower tax rates
or exemption from certain taxes, and investment in charging
infrastructure.

In some states, car companies have partnered with local

private utilities in order to provide large incentives on select
electric vehicles. For example, in the state of Florida, Nissan
- 218 -
and NextEra Energy, a local energy company, are working
together to offer $10,000 incentives on the all-electric 2017
Nissan Leaf. In addition, the government offers electric
vehicle incentives up to $7,500 to people who meet the
qualifications outlined by the Federal Electric Vehicles Tax
Credit. A standard 2017 Nissan Leaf costs around $30,000.
As a result, Florida residents could purchase a new Leaf for
less than half of the market value price.

San Diego's local private utility, San Diego Gas and Electric
(SDG&E), offers its customers an electric vehicle incentive of
$10,000 for a 2017 BMW i3.

Sonoma Clean Power, the public utility that serves both

Sonoma and Mendocino, offers its customers EV incentives
up to $2,000 on a Volkswagen e-Golf. In addition,
Volkswagen offers an incentive of $7,000 towards the
purchase of an e-Golf. On top of these local incentives, and
the federal tax credit, California residents can receive state
incentives up to $2,500 in the form of state rebates.
Therefore, Sonoma Clean Power customers can potentially
save up to $19,000 on an e-Wolf.

In March 2018, NPR reported that demand for electricity in

the U.S. had begun to decline. The Tennessee Valley
Authority projected a 13 percent drop in demand among the
seven states it serves, which is "the first persistent decline in
the federally owned agency's 85-year history." To combat
this, companies in the utility sector launched programs to get
more involved in the electric car market. For example, utility
companies began to invest in electric vehicle charging
infrastructure and to team up with automobile
manufacturers to offer rebates to people who purchase
electric vehicles.

- 219 -
 In the UK the Office for Low Emission Vehicles offers grants
for the installation of up to two charge points both in private
residences and up to 20 for commercial organisations.

BIO-DIESEL

What is biodiesel?

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel produced from vegetable oils such

as rape seed oil, sunflower seed oil, soya beans oil and also used
frying oils (UFO) or animal fats.

In the transport sector, it may be effectively used both

when blended with fossil diesel fuel and in pure form. Tests
undertaken by motor manufacturers in the European Union on
blends with diesel oil up to 5-10%, or at 25-30% and 100% pure
have resulted in guarantees for each type of use.

Minor modifications (seals, piping) is required for use at 100%

pure, unless specifically guaranteed by car manufacturers.

The use of biodiesel as a transport fuel does not require any

changes in the distribution system, therefore avoiding
expensive infrastructure changes. Biodiesel is also used as an
efficient heating oil.

Why use biodiesel?

Biodiesel has been demonstrated to have significant

environmental benefits in terms of decreased global warming
impacts, reduced emissions, greater energy independence and a
positive impact on agriculture. The European Union Bio-diesel
Board reports:

Various studies have estimated that the use of 1 kg of

biodiesel leads to the reduction of some 3 kg of CO2. Hence,
the use of biodiesel results in a significant reduction in CO2
emission (65%-90% less than conventional diesel),
particulate emissions and other harmful emissions. Biodiesel
is extremely low in sulphur, and has a high
- 220 -
 lubricity and fast biodegradability. These are all advantages
which have been confirmed by various EC Commission
programmes and tests of independent research institutes.

As such, an increased use of biodiesel in Europe represents

an important step for the European Union to meet its
emission reduction target as agreed under the Kyoto
agreement. Additionally reducing pollutant emissions
alleviates various human health problems.

In specific cases, used vegetable oils can be recycled as

feedstock for biodiesel production. This can reduce the loss
of used oils in the environment and provides a competitive
and CO² advantageous way of transforming a waste into
transport energy.

Biodiesel production also plays a useful role in

agriculture. Under the current Common Agricultural Policy,
the arable raw materials needed for biodiesel production
may be grown on set-aside land, land which would
otherwise be taken out of production.

Biodiesel production uses around 3 million hectares of

arable land in the EU.

What‟s happening in other countries?

The following achievements have so far been attained in

various countries in relation to the replacement of fossil fuel:

Indonesia

It is government policy that all diesel in Indonesia should

contain 20% bio-diesel. Soon Indonesia will be passing a law
to increase this to 30% bio-diesel63

63
The Jakarta Post, Indonesia plans to make 30 percent biodiesel blend mandatory, studies B100. 10 December
2018
- 221 -
 European Union

Biodiesel has been produced on an industrial scale in the

European Union since 1992, largely in response to positive
signals from the EU institutions. Today, there are
approximately 120 plants in the EU producing up to
6,100,000 tonnes of biodiesel annually. These plants are
mainly located in Germany, Italy, Austria, France and
Sweden.

Specific legislation to promote and regulate the use of

biodiesel is in force in various countries including Austria,
France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

The EU has also published strict guidelines in compliance

with CEN Standardisation (EN14214) in order to insure
quality and performance64.

The figure below gives some important summaries on the impact

of bio-diesel on jobs in the EU:

64
http://www.ebb-eu.org/biodiesel.php
- 222 -
Figure 11: Summary of economic benefits of bio-diesel in the EU

All in all, the future of automotive vehicle fuel is not fossil oil
based fuels. The world is rapidly shifting to electric and bio-
diesel technologies and there is absolutely no sense in our
country lagging behind in this important trend65. If Zambia was
to embrace bio-diesel production and electric vehicles in earnest,
Zambia will reduce its fossil fuel requirements and spend less on
fossil fuel imports.

If we replaced half of our fossil fuel imports with bio-diesel and

the use of electric vehicles, we are looking at localising $500
million as opposed to externalising this money through fuel
imports. At annual productivity levels of $25,000 per worker this
can support 20,000 high quality jobs. This can support
thousands of farmers producing oil crops, transporters and oil
processing plants.

65
https://techcabal.com/2018/08/20/the-world-is-leaving-africa-behind-in-electric-vehicle-adoption/
- 223 -
With this in mind, we must immediately, embark on pursuing
policies that will deliver an energy shift from reliance on fossil
fuels to bio-fuel and use of electric motor vehicles.

In particular we must pursue the following:

1. Kick-off a national sensitisation campaign to promote

electric vehicles and bio-diesel fuel production.
2. Invest in nation-wide electric vehicle charging
infrastructure.
3. Pass a law that all future government vehicle purchases
will either be 100% electric or hybrid electric/fuel vehicles.
4. Give incentives for electric vehicle imports by making them
duty free.
5. Create capacity for bio-diesel production by planting
millions of Moringa trees around the country.
6. Invest in the setting up of a biodiesel producing plant and
commence bio-diesel production within 2 years.
7. Pass a law that requires that all bio-diesel produced in the
country should be purchased by Indeni and mixed with
fossil diesel before supplying to filling stations.
8. Push for the adoption of the use of biofuels as cooking fuel
for homes as opposed to paraffin.

The long term objective is to eventually wean Zambia off fossil

fuels completely. Achieving this milestone will have significant
positive impact on our economy and environment. For this
reason, I intend to make Zambia the first African country to set
solid targets for achievement of electric vehicles and biodiesel
adoption.

- 224 -
- 225 -
 SIXTEEN
INFRUSTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

- 226 -
 “I am not sure I should be applauding our
Government‟s infrastructure achievements
considering the fact that the money purported to have
been spent on infrastructure could easily have given
us twice as much infrastructure as we have received
as a country”
Mauden Shula

- 227 -
Adequate infrastructure is vital for the social and economic
development of a country. The quality of infrastructure has a
direct bearing on the quality of services a country is able to offer.
It is impossible for a nation to offer such essential services as
health, education, electricity, sanitation and transportation with
inadequate related quality infrastructure. Adequate quality
infrastructure facilitates commerce and ultimately affects the
GDP of a nation. In fact it has been long determined that the
level of infrastructure has a huge bearing on how much a
country attracts in terms of investments.

In appreciating the vital role of infrastructure in a country, our

Engineers Institute of Zambia (EIZ) went ahead and researched
into the core infrastructure needs of the country and produced a
document to this effect. Reports from these studies are available
such that there is no need to want to reinvent the wheel. We
don’t need to send disaster management teams to go around the
country to assess infrastructure wasting tax payer’s money.
During Sata’s Presidency, reports and implementation plans
were in place.

In their 2014 Baseline Report Card for Zambia’s Infrastructure,

EIZ gave the following summary assessment and conclusions:

Roads
The road sector assessment was a grade of D. This implies
that the assessment determined the infrastructure‟s quality
and performance to be poor. Only 40 per cent of the core
road network is in maintainable condition and 60 per cent
requires critical rehabilitation. Furthermore, funding for
maintenance of the existing road stock continues to be under
severe pressure with not more than 22 per cent being
received from budgetary allocation in the period 2012 to
2014. The rate of accidents and number of fatalities also
continued to increase. Intensive efforts with regards to the
education of road users as well as implementation of

- 228 -
appropriate safety policies and measures are required to
save lives.

Bridges
Bridges assessment was a grade of C, implying that the
performance and quality of this infrastructure type was fair.
About 41 per cent of the bridge stock required intervention to
bring it to a satisfactory condition. Budgeting and funding
gaps exist and only an average of about 60 per cent of the
budgeted amounts were being made available. Increased
training of staff is necessary for routine operations such as
bridge inspections.

Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste

This sector was sub-divided into four (4) distinct sub-sectors
as each is driven by unique dynamics. Collapsing them into
one component would have completely distorted the
findings.

Urban Water Supply

The assessment of this sub-sector was a grade of D,
meaning that the performance and quality of the
infrastructure category was poor. In particular, the water
supply networks are in dire need of refurbishment to reduce
water losses, which in turn reduce the levels of non-revenue
water that currently averages about 48 per cent. Extensive
expansion of the networks and related infrastructure is
required to increase coverage levels which currently range
from 14 to 65 per cent.

Urban Sanitation
The assessment of this sub-category was F. The
infrastructure is totally inadequate for present and future
use. The infrastructure operated by the vast majority of
commercial utilities is in a poor state and needs
rehabilitation. The coverage of the urban sanitation network
is quite low in many jurisdictions with the exception of
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Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces. Most newly established
residential and peri-urban areas are not serviced due to
limited capacity in the network.

Solid Waste Management

The assessment of this sub-sector was F. The infrastructure
was found to be totally inadequate for present and future
use. In the vast majority of districts in Zambia, there is no
tangible waste collection and management service. This
poses a serious threat to public health and the environment.
Currently only Lusaka has an engineered landfill site which
caters for only 25 per cent of the total waste generated. All
the other urban centres do not have engineered landfill sites.

Rural Water Supply

The assessed grade for this sub-sector was D. The sub-
sector‟s quality and performance was determined to be
generally poor. At the time of the assessment, only 67 per
cent of the rural population had access to water points that
met the standards for safe water. Rural sanitation is not
provided for by government from an infrastructure
perspective. The key role of government in this sub-sector is
to create awareness amongst the communities on the
importance of good hygienic practices and on how to
construct well-functioning pit latrines for use at household
level.

Electricity
The overall assessed grade for electricity infrastructure was
C. The quality and performance of the infrastructure is fair.
The major power stations: Kariba North; and Victoria Falls
Power stations have been rehabilitated to design condition
levels. However, the facilities at small hydropower stations
have become obsolete and maintenance is increasingly
difficult. A rehabilitation program is currently underway to
upgrade the small hydropower stations. There is also a
- 230 -
major issue of the dams at both Kafue Gorge and Kariba
North Bank which are in need of urgent interventions. The
condition of the transmission system is good. The
distribution system is in need of voltage and capacity
rehabilitation, expansion and upgrading. Vandalism of
infrastructure facilities for the acquisition of steel,
conductors, and oil is currently very high. For the power
stations and the major substations, these risks have been
mitigated by the installation of security systems. For the
transmission lines and the smaller substations, regular
patrols and maintenance have been instituted. This has
invariably increased the operational costs.

Information and Communication Technology

This sector was sub-divided into five subs-sectors as it is a
very diverse infrastructure category. Collapsing it into a
single sector would have severely distorted the findings.

Fixed Telephone Network

The overall grade assessed for fixed telephone infrastructure
was D. The quality and performance of the infrastructure
was determined to be poor. The poor quality and lack of
timely replacements or upgrades from analogue telephone
exchanges to digital systems has contributed to the
substitution of fixed-line telephones with mobile cellular
communications, leading to the current trend of a steady
decline in the number of fixed-lines available in both urban
and rural areas of Zambia. The landline services of ZAMTEL
are under-utilized and customers perceive the company as
being slow to respond to customer queries, slow to resolve
faults and wrong billing.

Mobile Network
The overall grade assessed for mobile phone infrastructure
was D, implying that the performance and quality of this
sub-sector was poor. The mobile network has been growing
exponentially. However, its growth in rural areas was being
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limited by poor infrastructure. The advent of 3G and better
technology allowing broadband internet access has boosted
mobile phone usage. Service providers have, however, faced
numerous quality of service challenges. These include long
average call set up time, high call drop rates, and billing
challenges on both voice calls and data bundles. Upgrade
programs setting up communication base stations towers are
in progress to address some of these issues.

International Gateway, Internet Infrastructure, and ISP

Networks
The overall grade assessed for ISP network infrastructure
was D. The capacity of the infrastructure was very low.
Operations were also significantly low with numerous
quality of service challenges. There is poor coverage in the
rural areas. Numerous upgrade programs especially fibre
networks are in place.

Satellite Network
The overall grade assessed for Satellite infrastructure was
C, meaning that the quality and performance of the
infrastructure is fair. Satellites are mainly used in the rural
areas that have no other means of coverage or as backup by
ISPs and Corporates.

Postal Services
The overall assessment grade for postal service
infrastructure was C. The performance and quality of this
sub-sector was fair. Most post office buildings were,
however, in need of minor maintenance works to bring them
to modern and customer-friendly status. Some post office
buildings require major rehabilitation works, as they were
dilapidated.
Airports
The overall national grade for Zambian Airports was
assessed as a grade of D. This means that a number of
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critical interventions are required in terms of rehabilitation,
funding and planning in order to improve the quality of
aviation infrastructure. In particular, several domestic
airports have unpaved runways. The condition of terminal
buildings and terminal facilities is poor at a number of
domestic and international airports. Navigation systems,
communication, and metrology equipment at most airports
are poor.

Rail infrastructure
The overall national grade for rail infrastructure was
assessed as a grade D. Generally, the rail infrastructure is
in poor condition. Zambia‟s railway network suffers from
two main constraints: poor track maintenance with the case
of Zambia Railways; and low availability of main line
locomotives and wagons in the case of TAZARA. The
problems faced by the railway companies have resulted in
considerably reduced service capacity and hence their
present inability to attract more traffic. The cost of
rehabilitating and maintaining the railway system is
generally much higher than that of the road transport
system. Therefore, it is necessary to implement best
practices for future maintenance as this will ultimately
reduce maintenance costs than would be the case if
maintenance was continually deferred.

Conclusions and recommendations

Infrastructure is the bedrock of any country‟s economic and
social well-being. In general, this study has shown that
Zambia‟s infrastructure is inadequate in a number of
aspects to meet present and future needs. For the Zambian
economy to be competitive in the sub-region and beyond, an
infrastructure system that is of world-class quality and
which consistently performs efficiently is a must. The
Zambian government is urged to pay particular attention and
consistently invest in a transport system that moves people
and goods efficiently; transmission systems that deliver
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 reliable, low-cost power from a wide range of energy
sources; efficient communication; and water and sanitation
systems that drive industrial processes as well as the daily
functions in homes. This study points to an infrastructure
system that is on the whole failing to keep pace with the
current and expanding needs. On the whole, investment in
infrastructure across board is faltering.

The responsibility to commit to making an infrastructure

system that will be the principal driver of the desired
prosperity cannot be over-emphasised.

What will remain a fact is that infrastructure development is

vital for Zambia’s prosperity. Under the Patriotic Front, the past
seven years have seen Zambia embark on robust infrastructure
development around the country. Roads, Schools, Universities,
Health Centres, bridges, dams, toll gates, airports and hydro
power stations are amongst the many infrastructure projects
that have been and continue to be executed around Zambia. In
the process, Zambia has accumulated an amount of debt that
has become a serious burden to the national treasury.

No Zambian in their right mind has a problem with

infrastructure development but the following are some of the
concerns Zambian citizens are expressing concerning the current
infrastructure drive going on:

1. Zambia seems to be acquiring construction services at

highly inflated prices. Going by the funds we have so far
committed to infrastructure development, Zambia should
be sitting with twice the infrastructure.
2. At over 80%, the bulk of construction contracts are
awarded to foreign companies.
3. There seem not to be a systematic approach to our
infrastructure development to ensure we invest according
to what will offer our country the best dividends.

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Many of us still question the wisdom in accumulating debt and
spending $755 million on airport infrastructure in Lusaka and
Ndola at this particular stage in our development as a country.
Going by the way our economy is currently structured; it is very
hard to see how this airport infrastructure will give us value for
money in the next 30 years. By this we mean; how much more
revenues and investments will Zambia be attracting now that we
have these new airports compared to before?

All in all, apart from the highlighted concerns, the performance

in the area of infrastructure development by the PF has been
commendable and seems to be in response to the assessment
and recommendations provided by EIZ. Going forward, our
approach to infrastructure development must be guided by the
following key principles:

1. Health centres and schools must take first priority. There

must be a minimum number of health Centres and Schools
to be constructed every year.
2. Establish clear priority ranking for the rest of
infrastructure development needs.
3. Infrastructure development services to be purchased at
best rates.
4. Infrastructure should be constructed by local contractors
5. Infrastructure development should be equitably distributed
in all provinces of Zambia.

Priority Ranking

In an environment of limited resources and competing needs,

one has no choice but to establish clear ways of determining
what is of foremost priority when choosing what to invest in. As
a country, it is important that we have guidelines to help us
determine what takes precedence when investing in
infrastructure. When we have schools, hospitals, dams, roads
and so many other things to build all over the country, what do
we build first and where?

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As a general starting point, key factors in determining
infrastructure priority must include the following:

1. Is there an immediate health or safety risk in existence as a

result of lack of this infrastructure?
2. How many citizens are being inconvenienced or negatively
affected as a result of lack of this infrastructure?
3. How many citizens will have their lives improved as a result
of this infrastructure?
4. How will this infrastructure improve the movement of
goods and services?
5. Will this infrastructure improve commerce and to what
extent?
6. Will this infrastructure stimulate local and international
investment?

Our overall infrastructure strategy

Going by the above, and looking at the assessment by EIZ, we

must take infrastructure to do with sanitation, water supply and
solid waste management as first priority. This is because
inadequate infrastructure in this area poses immediate health
risk to millions of citizens. This risk has to be eliminated quickly.
Attending to this infrastructure need benefits millions of citizens
on a daily basis. In summary, our infrastructure strategy can be
summarised as in the following table:

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 Type of Infrastructure Justification Strategy
1 Sanitation, water supply Eliminate Identify needs and
& solid waste health risk to immediately
management millions of allocate resources
infrastructure citizens. Job to attend to such
creation needs.
2 Production cities Jobs, housing, Develop 3 every
schools & year until every
health centers province hosts 3
for millions of of these.
Zambians
3 Schools and health These are basic Build 200 schools
Centers. services & 200 health
expected of a centers every year.
government At least one per
constituency
4 Housing settlements Housing is a Develop 200
basic need housing
settlements every
year
5 Roads & bridges Critical for Continue
distribution of maintenance &
goods and construction every
services. year using funds
collected from toll
fees. No more debt
acquisition
6 Rail lines Will be critical Maintain rail lines
for our & Invest in new
international locomotives. Link
market Zambia to Angola,
expansion Mozambique and
Namibia through
rail.
7 Electricity Need to increase Continue to
electricity expand generation
access & capacity & make
electricity Zambia an
export capacity. electricity
generation hub.
Table 32: Summary of infrastructure strategy

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 SEVENTEEN
A NEW INVESTOR APROACH

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„I plan to run the most business friendly government
Zambia has ever seen, however, I would rather have
no foreign investor come to Zambia than agree to bad
deals.”
-KBF

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The world is increasingly becoming a global village with ever
growing nation to nation interdependency on so many fronts. A
nation, no matter how wealthy it might be, cannot sustain its
level of wealth without trading and cooperating with other
nations. Zambia is no exception in this regard and for this
reason, it is vital that we rethink and refine the way we conduct
ourselves in regards to international business relations.

In my first book, I argued that the way investors from other

nations will behave in our country is to a large extent determined
by the parameters we set. For this reason, I am not willing to
label any foreign government or investor bad for Zambia just yet.
As far as I am concerned, any investor currently not conducting
themselves in the best interest of Zambia is doing so because we
have permitted them to do so.

I have reason to believe that most of the time, we have been

engaging with foreign players as begging junior partners at their
mercy. This is evident in the many deals and investors that have
come to Zambia and left us perpetually complaining and licking
our wounds. My suspicion is that we have suffered this
unfortunate situation mainly due to the following two reasons:

1. Failure to clearly determine what our strategic goals are as

a nation and what we need to achieve from each
partnership or engagement with foreign players in regards
to our strategic goals.
2. Lack of a moral or ethical back-bone by our officials and
negotiators to insist on what is best for our country.

Going forward, this must be a thing of the past. Before engaging

any foreign partner or investor, the following considerations
should be core to any discussions:

1. As a country, we need to create over 5 million jobs within

10 years.

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 2. We need to boost our agriculture and manufacturing
sectors significantly and become an agricultural and
industrial hub of the SADC region.
3. We need to acquire modern and durable infrastructure and
industrial equipment at competitive prices.
4. We need every Zambian youth in school or at work.
5. We need our people to possess the best skills.
6. We need every Zambian family to own a house at an
affordable price.
7. We need every Zambian to have access to universal health
coverage.
8. We need every Zambian to have access to clean water and
electricity.
9. We need our people to control 90% of the Zambian
economy.
10. We need every Zambian child to learn in a decent
classroom.

We then need to look closely at what we should be offering to a

potential foreign investor or partner. Key considerations should
be as follows:

1. Abundant natural resources (land, minerals,water bodies..)

2. We have a youthful population that guarantees us reliable
labor.
3. Peace and political stability, which we seldom sell.
4. Access to a substantial market as a country at the centre of
eight other countries geographically.
5. Strong credentials in terms of rule of law.
6. High levels of security.
7. Favourable tax rates.
8. Ease of doing business.

I must say that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to

items 5,6, 7 and 8. We need to make sure that these become a
reality. Just because we have peace, natural resources and
access to a huge immediate market is no guarantee that every
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investor will want to do business with us. Mind you, Africa has
many other countries with even better natural resource and
market compositions than Zambia. DR Congo is the richest
country in Africa in terms of resources, has a far bigger
population than Zambia but cannot attract quality investors
because of their political challenges as a country. There are
countries that have less resources and market access than
Zambia, but attract more investment per capita than Zambia
simply because they offer a better business environment and
security than Zambia. Mauritius, Botswana and now Rwanda are
attracting better Foreign Direct Investment per capita than
Zambia simply because they have created a reputation as better
managed countries than Zambia. Leadership is the issue here.

To become the ultimate investment destination, we must make

sure that within a year, we take drastic steps towards being
ranked in the top 5 African countries in terms of the rule of law,
security, ease of doing business and tax rates. Our aim must be
to be the number one rated African country within 5 years.

After the above considerations are clear, discussions with foreign

players can then be conducted on equal footing. Under these
circumstances, we will not accept investments that will take
away business from our citizens, leave our youths unemployed
and pay our treasury peanuts in taxes. My leadership will not
allow this.

We will then demand value for money for infrastructure

development and refuse over-priced projects. We should rather
have no investor come to Zambia than agree to bad deals.

Win-win engagements with investors & cooperating partners.

I have no doubt whatsoever, that it is possible to engage with

investors and other nations in a manner that ensures that each
party gets the best deal out of it. I will take an example of our
planned production cities and how we can partner with
European nations in making this a reality.
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I am aware that European companies have got great capacity to
supply high quality industrial equipment, buildings and
production plants, roads and housing. Putting up an agri-city,
for example, requires massive investments that run into billions
of dollars. With a credible government behind us, we can propose
to the European Union, America, China or any capable partner
to raise part of the funds needed to execute these projects. At
most, 50% of the contracts to supply equipment and build
infrastructure can then be awarded to firms from the nations
from which funding will be coming. As part of the contract,
experts from these nations will be required to train Zambians to
run and manage the production plants and equipment before
handing over.

Joint ventures can also be entered into where firms from the
financing nations can set up operations in our production cities
in conjunction with the government of Zambia or our local
companies to supply to regional markets. In such arrangements,
Zambia will always return at least 50% ownership in the
ventures.

The end result will be as follows:

1. Zambia will acquire increased production capacity,

employment and economic growth.
2. Zambians will acquire new skills and technologies.
3. Zambia will acquire substantial numbers of quality
housing.
4. Financing nations will acquire substantial business for
their companies and more experience.
5. Financing nations will have boosted employment &
economic growth for themselves as a result

What is also cardinal is that this type of investment that is

based on production and wealth creation is designed with
inbuilt capacity to repay any financing forwarded by
cooperating partners. A production city is designed to be able

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to generate more than sufficient revenues to be able to repay
loans from financiers without placing any burden on the
national treasury. In this case, government will only play the
role of facilitator, supervisor and loan guarantor and not be
under any pressure to repay loans. The businesses that will
be established in the productions cities from borrowed funds
will be responsible for repaying all loans.

This is a shift away from the current tendency to acquire

loans for expensive projects whose economic value and
returns on investment to the country are highly debatable.
Given a choice between building a modern airport costing
$395 million and setting up a Livestock producing town, it is
a no brainer that the livestock producing town will give
Zambia better returns and benefits to citizens and the
economy. Most importantly, the Livestock producing town can
easily pay for the financing without pressure on the national
treasury.

Just as a reminder, properly done, a livestock town producing

a million goats for Saudi Arabia can give Zambia the following
clear outcomes in term of jobs, housing and value to our
economy:

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 GOAT KEEPING TOWN
Major Commercial Units Employment Total
units per unit
1 20,000 housing units 1
2 Town MGT 1 200 200
3 Construction 2 100 200
4 Farming communities 50 273 13,650
5 Meat processing unit 1 200 200
6 Fruits & vegies 1 200 200
processing
7 Animal feed 1 200 200
manufacture
8 Hotels 5 50 250
9 Lodges 5 20 100
10 Airport 1 200 200
11 Utilities 2 50 100
12 University campus 5 300 1,500
13 Hospitals 5 200 1,000
14 Shopping malls 5 400 2,000
15 Grains farm 1 200 200
16 Packaging & branding 1 200 200
17 Construction 1 100 100
18 Land scaping 10 5 50
19 Office park 1 300 300
20 Leather works 1 200 200
21 Auto services 10 10 100
22 Milling company 1 200 200
23 Wood works shop 1 100 100
24 Engineering 5 20 100
25 Foot wear 2 100 200
26 Transport & logistics 5 20 100
27 Building materials 2 100 200
28 Bakery 5 20 100
29 Cosmetics 5 20 100
30 Printing 5 10 50
31 Others Investors 1 5000 5,000
Totals 72 27,100
Table 33: Potential permanent jobs in a livestock town

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Mind you, the jobs in question are permanent, will support
education, sports and health and will be there for generations
unlike once-off construction projects that employ a few lowly
paid Zambians for a few months. The Treasury will earn
increasing tax revenues from a livestock town for generations.

Unlike an expensive airport project, a livestock producing town

project is not at the mercy of „hoped‟ increase in air travel traffic
for its justification. After spending $395 million on a modern
airport in Ndola, there is no guarantee that air travel will, all of a
sudden, increase within 10 years to justify that investment! The
fact is business people and tourists do not necessarily travel to
countries or cities because of better airports! Any international
traveller will tell you that how big or fancy the airports in a
destination country are, is not amongst his 10 top priorities in
making a decision to travel to that particular destination!

On the other hand, even in the absence of the Saudi Market,

Zambians themselves can consume an additional 1 million goats
per year, without any doubt! We are a population of over 17
million people. One million goats in a year is equivalent to 2,740
goats per day. 2,740 goats per day is not even enough for Lusaka
alone! On a monthly basis, you are looking at 82,200 goats.
Lusaka has a population of over 2 million people composed of
roughly 300,000 households rendering 82,200 goats per month a
child’s play! Now think of the populations in Kitwe, Ndola and
the rest of Zambia.

When you consider that there is DRC and other neighbouring

countries as potential markets for our goat meat, it is not theory
that this kind of investment will give us value for money in the
short, medium and long terms. This is an investment which will
directly benefit Zambians and our economy within months!

This analysis on its own, clearly demonstrates that we have

serious unexploited potential in the livestock sector that we need
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to decisively explore as a matter of strategic urgency. It doesn’t
make any sense that our young people are unemployed and just
roaming the streets when we have scenarios and opportunities
like this one!!

Public Private Partnerships with local companies

In setting up production cities, my proposal is that we operate

with an underlining principle that private companies should run
the various business operations that will be established in the
various production towns and cities. Whilst government will be
better placed to organise the required financial and land
resources, it will be vital that the private sector drive the
implementation. We will have to pursue very deliberate
partnerships that will leverage expertise and experience of
identified local and foreign private sector companies in ensuring
projects are successful.

As an example, in setting up an Agri-city, my view is that we

approach a very experienced company such as Zambeef and
propose to partner. Government would provide the finances and
the land to establish a mass agriculture operation. Smaller
farmers will be supported and encouraged to set-up around this
Zambeef operation as out-grower units. Because Zambeef is
already established in the agro business, they will be better
placed to successfully run such an operation. Zambeef would
easily roll-out and operate more retail outlets in Zambia and
other countries with the help of public investment.

This approach will keep things professional and eliminate the

inefficiencies that are often associated with government run
enterprises. However, in these PPP arrangements, government
will secure and retain shareholding to ensure dividends accrue
to the Zambian people at all times. This will be a must!

Another practical example is that in setting up a Fishing Resort

Town, my proposal is that we partner with Yalelo, an already
established aqua-culture business owned by Zambians. The
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government will provide funds and land for the establishment of
massive fish farming operations. Yalelo would deploy their
experience and management know how to operate these
investments profitably. Smaller fish farmers will be given
incentives and support to set up around the Yalelo operation as
out-grower units to supply to the main operation. Yalelo would
then be expected to expand its sales outlets network nationally
and regionally creating more jobs for Zambians.

These PPP arrangements will have to be operated as professional

commercial entities and should be responsible for repaying any
loans in case of borrowed funds.

The third example I will give is how we could work with

successful local companies such as Trade Kings. Trade Kings
has accumulated massive experience in the food processing and
detergent manufacturing businesses. With the export market in
mind, we could partner with Trade Kings in setting up
processing plants targeted at supplying the regional market. We
could set up a Trading Border Town near the DRC border and
invest in a processing and manufacturing plant that will
specifically produce for the massive DRC and regional markets.

Government would then go on and put every necessary incentive

including tax waivers to enable Trade Kings operate and export
to DRC and other countries with little impediments. Trade kings
would then be allowed to run this operation professionally and
without political interference to deliver dividends that will benefit
Trade Kings Ltd and the people of Zambia through government.

When it comes to foreign investor PPP arrangements, an example

would be as follows. Since as a country, we have had a non-
existent textiles and fashion industry for decades now, we would
benefit greatly by teaming up with foreign companies that are
seasoned in this sector. We would set-up an agri-city that has
cotton growing as one of its main crops. Out-grower farms will be

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clustered around the main farm operation. Trust me, this is
already on the table!

We could invite and partner with foreign companies that are

experienced in the textiles industry to set up a cotton processing
plant and establish a textiles industry around it. This
arrangement could be a joint venture in which both government
and investor will contribute financing.

With many more of such PPP arrangements, the Zambian

government would practically be the most pro-business
government the country has ever seen.

A cardinal shift in my approach to investors will be that we the

Zambian people will initiate and drive the agenda and maintain
control at all times. It’s our people who need jobs and prosperity
desperately, so we will shift from operating at the pace and
mercy of third parties. In this era, we set the ball rolling, set the
ground rules, invite interested parties and get on with the
program whether investors or partners come on board or not. We
are taking charge of the destiny of our nation!

My legal exposure in negotiating ‘deals’ will definitely help the

nation. Negotiating a trade deal is an art form that requires more
than just political power! You need to be ‘street wise’ and
knowledgeable.

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 EIGHTEEN
FINANCING ZAMBIA’S ECONOMIC
TRANSFORMATION AGENDA

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 “I totally believe that our natural resources and
human resources are enough to finance our economic
agenda and create wealth beyond measure for our
nation”
- KBF

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A new national vision requires a new expenditure focus. To a
large extent, Zambia is where it is economically and
developmentally mainly due to the way we as a country have
applied our financial and human resources. It is a huge fallacy
to expect significant shifts in our economy, education,
agriculture, industrialisation and health without corresponding
shifts in our budgetary and expenditure priorities. If a leadership
announces that it intends to make agriculture and
industrialisation, major national focus areas but fails to make
any significant priority changes to the national budget to reflect
this shift, you should know that the leadership in question is
either clueless or is simply not genuine and is merely playing
politics of rhetoric.

What should be more notable is that, it is not always true that a

nation needs more income/revenues in order to effect better
development. I am certain, without any shadow of doubt, that
Zambia can achieve serious development and economic strides
simply by introducing better expenditure priorities and ensuring
discipline and efficiency in that expenditure. From a good look at
the 2017, 2018 and the proposed 2019 budgets, what I have
concluded is that there are actually enough funds coming
through the Treasury to transform this nation decisively. Our
biggest problem as a nation is not insufficient resources but
rather poor utilisation of available resources.

When one looks at what is allocated to Economic affairs,

Education and Health, for example, it becomes clear that there
are adequate resources available to turn this nation around. $ 2
billion invested prudently into boosting our economy can do
wonders if properly applied! One wonders why unemployment
has remained rife if we can allocate as much as $2 billion to
economic affairs in a year.

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Prudent Financial Management as a Source of Development
Financing.

In my fact finding travels around the country, what I have

established is that our country is seriously ravaged by a culture
of abuse of public funds and resources. At a time when many
parts of our country do not have access to vital services such as
clean and safe drinking water, health care and education, a few
individuals in public service are helping themselves to public
funds in the most reckless and cruel manner. In one particular
incidence, a Councillor for a rural ward, took me to a project on
which officials from a particular District Council insisted on
spending and indeed went on to spend K400,000 when in fact
the project could have been completed with K80,000.00 using
local contractors and labour. Officials of this District Council
deliberately pushed this highly inflated project to their preferred
contractor for obvious reasons. Kick-backs.

This particular incident is just one in many such incidences

going on in councils and government departments around the
country. When one thinks of compounding the financial
implication of all such blatant abuses happening across the
country, one gets to realise how calamitous the situation is!
Zambians are being ripped-off and disadvantaged by some
people in public offices.

Some of the common public funds abuses going on around the

country include the following:

1. Directing investment towards very expensive and low

priority projects such as the expansion of airports at the
expense of projects with better benefits for majority
Zambians.
2. Overpricing of government funded projects in order to
secure bribes and kick-backs.
3. Unnecessary purchase of expensive vehicles for public
officers.

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 4. Expenditure on unnecessary workshops and travel.
5. First class air travel for government officials.
6. Abuse of government property such as vehicles and fuel for
personal use.
7. Stealing of government resources such as medical supplies.
8. Paying salaries to thousands of retired government workers
simply because their pension packages have not been paid.
9. Paying salaries to non-existent or ghost workers

There is really no doubt that taking decisive measures to curb

the wide-spread abuse of public resources is long overdue in our
country and will give citizens great dividends.

Looking at the general culture of waste prevailing in our public

institutions, I have no doubt that there is a lot of waste going on
in economic affairs, Education and Health sectors. These three
functions have some of the biggest budgetary allocations. By
stream-lining public funds utilisation in these and other areas,
Zambians are assured to achieve better value for every kwacha.
It means that if for example $800 million in the health sector
could only support 25,000 public health sector jobs, the same
$800 million in the hands of a prudent leadership can support
50,000 jobs in the health sector.

On the next page is the proposed 2019 national budget as

presented by Hon. Margaret Mwanakatwe.

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 Function 2019 Budget
Amount Share of Budget
General Public Services 31,277,061,748 36.00%
External Debt Payment 14,947,077,126
Domestic Debt Payment 8,626,278,083
Local Government Equalization Fund 1,164,867,612
Zambia Revenue Authority 900,000,000
Compensation and Awards 200,000,000
Public Affairs and Summit Meetings 176,478,995
Constituency Development Fund 249,600,000
Defence 5,072,431,839 4.90%
Public Order and Safety 2,865,505,045 3.00%
National Identity Documents 24,999,000
Economic Affairs 20,651,090,605 23.80%
Roads Infrastructure 6,501,672,380
Farmer Input Support Programme (e-voucher) 1,428,000,000
Strategic Food Reserves 672,000,000
International Airports 1,592,850,000
Rural Electrification Fund 182,461,999
Energy Power Infrustructure 415,763,796
Environmental Protection 875,101,216 1.00%
Climate Change Resilience 213,035,243
Housing and Community Amenities 2,238,697,351 2.60%
Water Supply and Sanitation 1,984,759,408
o/w Lusaka Sanitation Project (Millenium Challenge) 175,000,000
Kafue Bulk Water Ssupply & saitation project 207,750,000
Kafulafuta Water Ssupply Project 416,635,390
Nkana Water Supply & Sanitation Project 304,500,000
Markets and Bus Stations 16,809,740
Health 8,069,128,277 9.30%
Drugs and Medical Supplies 900,082,236
Health Infrastructure 725,884,552
Medical Equipment 620,188,226
Recreation, Culture and Religion 297,272,319 0.30%
Education 13,274,546,421 15.30%
School Infrastructure 258,806,582
Student Loans and Scholarships 557,000,000
University and College Infrastructure 601,645,546
Luapula university 442,670,455
skills development 163,993,697
Social Protection 2,187,059,906 2.50%
Public Service Pension Fund 1,060,550,212
Social Cash Transfer 699,494,400
Food Security Pack 110,880,000
TOTAL 86,807,894,727 100.00%
Table 34: 2019 proposed budget expressed in Zambian Kwacha

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NEW SPENDING PRIORITIES FOR NEW RESULTS

The following is my proposed priority budgetary focus to set

Zambia on a new trajectory in terms of job creation, development
and prosperity.

Economic Affairs

As indicated right from my introduction, if all I was to achieve as

a leader is to create 4 million jobs in our country, I would still be
a very proud Zambian. Employment is number one priority for
Zambia. Every investment in the economic affairs area must
therefore, be investment in a manner that maximises
employment for Zambians. Under economic affairs, we
specifically need to pursue the following:

1. Allocate a minimum of $1 billion to the creation of 3

production cities every year. In the first 5 years, 2 of these
production cities to be established every year have to be
anchored around agriculture.
2. Allocate $200 million towards the citizens’ house
ownership project. This fund would be used to establish
the 200 settlements together with the schools and health
centres in each settlement.
3. Allocate $200 million towards the Rapid Ward Based
Development Agenda.
4. Allocate $100 million to establish the Local Church
Business Development Revolving Fund. This will be a once-
off investment as it will be a revolving Fund.
5. Allocate $100 million towards the establishment of
Informal Sector Development Fund.

Education

At the peak of our education agenda, the nation will need a

minimum of 124,000 properly trained teachers employed by the
government. We will also need decent schools and Teachers’
housing built in rural areas. We will also need facilities and

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trainers to service a minimum of 300,000 students at tertiary
level education every year. This will require a minimum of
10,000 lecturers or instructors.

In this vein, we will elect to rapidly upgrade all teachers with

qualifications below diploma level and focus more on training
teachers at degree level. We will also commence on employing
10,000 new teachers every year.

All in all, at the peak of our ideal education sector, we will need a
budgetary allocation of $1.8 billion per annum under current
terms. This means an additional $500 million to the proposed
$1.3 billion allocated to education as proposed by Hon.
Mwanakatwe. The additional $500 million is specifically to cover
the sponsoring of tertiary training for more youths every year
and ensuring other educational requirements are adequately
taken care of.

This additional investment will also be targeted at training our

young people for specific key productive areas such as
agriculture, mining, manufacturing, textiles, construction, I.T.,
retail, distribution, hospitality and tourism.

An annual investment of $1.8 billion towards our education

sector will set our nation on firm ground in terms of wealth
creation, regional and global competitiveness. This is in view of
the fact that we would clean up the inefficiencies and public
funds misuse that is currently going on in the education sector.

Agriculture

Our agriculture sector provides our country with one of the most
effective channels of lifting our people out of poverty. The
majority of our self-employed citizens are employed in the
agriculture sector as small-holder farmers. According to recent
statistics, we are looking at about 1.6 million Zambians working
in the agriculture sector. Moreover, over 8.3 million Zambians
rely on agriculture for their sustenance.

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Our immediate intervention in the agriculture sector should be
to improve productivity per agro worker from the current $1,500
to $15,000 per annum in a space of 5 years. We must push this
level of productivity to at least $25,000 per annum by the 10th
year. Besides developing two agriculture based production cities
mentioned under Economic Affairs every year, we can further
achieve this by pursuing the following:

1. Increase the number of agricultural extension officers to

train our farmers in efficient farming methods.
2. Ensure agriculture extension officers have decent housing,
transportation and equipment to effectively carry-out their
work.
3. Guide small-holder farmers to diversify into livestock, fish
farming and other crops in addition to maize growing to
increase their productivity.
4. Implement aggressive dip tank construction in Southern
and Eastern Provinces and later around the country.
5. Expand capacity for irrigation farming around the country.
6. Provide communal mechanised farming equipment such as
solar pumps, tractors and ploughs. Purchasing 20 tractors
and implements for each district in our country will only
cost us $25 million!
7. Run effective agricultural inputs distribution to ensure
farmers receive appropriate farming inputs on time.
8. Provide an effective and reliable market net-work that will
take-up all farm produce around the country.

To pursue the above, we need to allocate $500 million. We must

also invest $100 million to acquire machinery and other
necessary capacity required to manufacture all our fertilisers
locally. Together with the establishment of two agriculture based
towns, this brings our annual investment in agriculture to $1.2

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billion from the suggested $540 million proposed in the 2019
budget66.

Health

Currently, it is estimated that our country has one doctor and

eight nurses per 10,000 Zambians. This translates roughly to
about 15,000 nurses and doctors countrywide. This a far cry
from World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation that a
country should have a minimum of 23 doctors, nurses and mid-
wives staff per 10,000 citizens67 translating to about 38,000 of
these crucial health workers. This simply means we currently
have a shortage of 23,000 doctors and nurses. This shortage has
not even alluded to the shortages of other key medical personnel
such as lab-technicians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, bio-
technicians, environmental scientists and many others. With
this kind of shortage, there is no way our country can provide
minimum health care. This shortage alone clearly tells you that
our health sector is in dire trouble! This is before you even come
to consider the widely reported shortages in equipment, drugs,
other medical supplies and health facilities.

I envision universal health coverage that leaves no Zambian

behind. I envision a health sector that prioritises prevention and
health promotion and considers treatment a secondary level
intervention. This simply means, as a government, we must
place more emphasis on ensuring our citizens have the right
nutrition, lead healthy lives and live in quality houses and safe
surroundings that are not prone to disease outbreaks. This kind
of health orientation will revolve around information
dissemination and will require effective communication
channels.

We will ensure that adequate health personnel are trained and

employed and ensure that all necessary medical supplies and

66
Hon. Margaret Mwanakatwe, 2019 Budget Speech, 2018
67
https://www.who.int/hrh/workforce_mdgs/en/
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equipment are available for our citizens needing medical
attention within their communities and close to family and
friends. We are aware that our country requires additional health
centres and workers and we will roll-out the building of health
centre on an annual basis.

Zambia is a signatory to the Abuja Declaration on health. This

particular declaration places a demand on each nation to commit
at least 15% of its budget towards health. Based on our current
budget, we should be allocating K13 billion or roughly around $1
billion towards our health sector. Simply meaning, we will need
to up our health budgetary allocation by $200 million. With
introduction of better priorities and financial discipline, we can
deliver a very improved health sector with $1 billion every year.

Key steps I propose for action in our health sector are as follows:

1. Implement reforms to ensure efficient use of and

elimination of public funds abuse in the health sector.
2. Ensure all health centres are adequately equipped and
resourced with sufficient medical supplies.
3. Establishment of 200 new Health Centres every year.
4. Recruit 10,000 new health personnel every year for the first
2 years and thereafter recruit 5,000 every year.
5. Quickly establish and put in place a robust health system
that is able to prevent, detect and respond to health
emergencies competently.

With $5 billion, Zambia will be set on the path of increased

employment, development, prosperity, decent education and
health services.

Increasing Government Revenue

My strong belief is that sustainable increase in government

revenues should be more a function of a growing economy than
anything else. I believe that once we significantly grow our
employment levels and production/service levels as a country,

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our revenues from taxes will increase substantially without
necessarily overburdening the citizens with high tax rates.

Improve Performance of State Owned Companies

Currently the Zambian Government owns 29 Parastatal

companies68. To a large extent, these Parastatal companies have
not performed well. It is not that they cannot perform well but
rather because people who have been running government have
been incompetent and extended this incompetence to these State
Owned Companies. Under strictly professional and result
oriented management, public companies can give us stellar
performance and positively impact our treasury. For this reason,
I purpose to introduce and pursue a totally new philosophy when
it comes to public companies. We must eliminate patronage and
introduce professionalism and efficiency with no excuses for poor
performance. Every State owned company can be and has to
become profitable without any exception.

My direction is that that these State Owned Entities should be

given minimum targets commensurate to their asset base. In
total, state owned companies should be contributing nothing less
than $100 million in dividends annually. This figure will have to
be doubled in a space of 5 years.

It is customary for poorly performing companies to rush to

retrench employees as one way of ‘boosting performance’. Since
we are focused on creating more jobs, we must not entertain
retrenchment as an option. My policy position is that having a
huge workforce should never be a problem. A huge workforce
should be an indication of capacity to create more wealth. In
other words, when a company or a country has a huge
workforce, the huge workforce must never be looked at as a
liability but as an asset. The issue should be about finding
means to make this huge workforce more productive. In our

68
National Assembly, Committee on Parastatal Bodies on the management and operations of the industrial
development corporation in Zambia, June, 2018
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books, retrenchment is failure by a management/leadership to
find productive engagement for their staff. Instead of
retrenching, we expect creative managements to analyse their
workforce, assets and markets and formulate means to deploy all
their staff in such ways that they can add value to the
profitability and well-being of the organisation in general.

Addressing Zambia’s Debt problem

At the time the Patriotic Front was taking over power in 2011,
Zambia’s external debt stood at only $ 1.9 billion. As at August,
2018, Zambia was known to have total debts to the tune of $15
billion. Foreign debt was estimated at $9.51 billion69 whilst local
debt stood at $5.4 billion70.

The following table details some of the debts Zambia contracted

between 2011 and 2018:

69
https://www.lusakatimes.com/2018/11/09/external-debt-continues-to-rise-mwanakatwe/
70
https://zambiareports.com/2018/11/08/zambias-domestic-debt-stands-k54-billion/
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 Description of Debt Amount
1 2012 Eurobond $0.75 billion
2 2014 Eurobond $1 billion
3 2015 Eurobond $1.25 billion
4 Kenneth Kaunda Airport expansion project $0.36 billion
5 Ndola airport expansion project. $0.395 billion
6 Security Wings Housing Project $0.275 billion
7 Kafue Gorge Power Plant Project $1.7 billion
8 Kariba North Bank Power plant $0.43 billion
9 Lusaka L400 Roads Project $0.3 billion
10 Lusaka Decongestion Project $0.285 billion
11 Digital migration Project $0.280 billion
12 Copperbelt C400 Roads Project $0.418 billion
13 Mongu Kalabo Road $0.287 billion
14 2000 military houses $0.157 billion
15 Heroes stadium $0.094 billion
16 Kafulafuta Dam Project $0.449 billion
17 Kafue Water Project $0.104 billion
18 Lusaka sanitation Project $0.13 billion
19 Mbala Nakonde Road $0.180 billion
20 Mansa Luwingu Road $0.242 billion
21 Levy Mwanawasa Stadium $0.094 billion
22 Mulungushi Conference Centre Expansion $0.03 billion
Project
23 Domestic debt $5.4 billion
TOTAL $14.6 BILLION
Table 35: List of some of Zambia’s debts between 2011 to date

A close analysis of our debts reveals the following very worrying

trends:

i. The majority of projects for which we contract debt are,

without any doubt, highly over-priced. One can safely
conclude that Zambia has been paying at least twice the
fair price for most projects. For example, paying $1million
per kilometre for township roads is just day light robbery!
So is spending $78,000 dollars per house under the
security wings housing project. Trying to convince
Zambians that it was a fair deal to pay more than $4
million for each toll gate constructed on the Lusaka-Kitwe
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 road is nothing short of an insult to the intelligence of the
Zambian people.
ii. The majority of the projects we have financed with
borrowed money have no capacity to generate sufficient
returns to justify the investments.

Providing some light on how the Eurobond loans were deployed

by government, Minister of Finance by then, Hon. Margaret
Mwanakatwe had this to say:

Responding to a question for oral answer from Kabompo UPND

member of parliament Ambrose Lufuma who wanted to know
the status of the three Euro bonds, Mwanakatwe said during
the period 2012 and 2013, the government, from the US $750
million Euro bond, released 310 million to the road sector, 255
million to the energy sector whilst the railway sector received
120 million.

“Other releases were 29.4 million to the health sector and 20

million to recapitalise the Development Bank of Zambia,”
Mwanakatwe revealed.

She said US $1billion that was issued in 2014 was mainly for
completion of some of the outstanding projects “so as to unlock
further economic capital”.

“The bulk of resources were channelled to infrastructure

projects which accounted for K2.8 billion during the period
2014 and 2016. Notable expenditures under this category
included K1.8 billion for roads, K634 million for establishment
of new districts and K123.8 million for the railway system. Mr
Speaker, other sectors that benefited from this bond included
the energy sector at K955.7 million, education sector at K496.6
million and the recapitalisation of State-owned enterprises at
the cost of K480.4 million,” Mwanakatwe explained.

The minister further told the House that the remainder from the
$1 billion Euro bond was shared among the sectors of health,

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 agriculture, water and sanitation whilst part of it was used for
general budget support as appropriated by Parliament.
Mwanakatwe, on the $1.25 billion Euro bond which the
government issued in 2015, said: “Sir, it is important to
mention that due to volatility in our domestic currency during
that period, it was prudent to hold part of the money in dollars
to reduce exchange losses when making payments in foreign
dominated currency.”

She said releases, nonetheless, were made to various sectors

in an effort to foster economic growth and also to ensure that
liquidity was unlocked in the economy.
“Sir, the notable expenditures from this third bond were K2.6
billion to the agriculture sector, K2.3 billion to the energy sector,
K2.2 billion to the road sector, K434 million to the health sector,
K339 million to the education sector. The balance went to water
and sanitation, construction of housing units for security wings,
recapitalisation of TAZARA, installation of navigation radars,
procurement of dredging equipment and general budget support
as appropriated by Parliament,” Mwanakatwe said.

The biggest apprehension gripping Zambians when it comes to

debt repayment is the pending $750 million Eurobond
repayment due in 2022. The other two Eurobonds are due in
2024 and 2025 respectively. The government of Zambia has so
far failed to put in place a working savings plan to prepare for
this pending huge repayment. If our government is spending
$2.3 billion in debt repayments in 2019, is it not safe to assume
that in 2022 our government will be effectively expected to pay
around $ 3 billion ($2.3 billion + $0.75 billion) towards debt.

National Debt is not automatically a bad thing. How proceeds

from loans are invested is the defining issue. Experts such the
former Bank of Zambia Dr. Caleb Fundanga opined that what
will make it more difficult for Zambia to repay the Eurobonds is
the fact that the Eurobonds were never invested in areas with

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capacity to directly increase productivity and the country’s tax
base71.

When it comes to the debt situation, the truth is, Zambia’s debt
is indeed stressful but manageable. With a prudent leadership in
place, the $750 million can be repaid when it falls due in 2022.
This is provided the current leadership does not engage in more
unnecessary debt acquisition to worsen the already stressful
debt situation. The number one key factor to Zambia’s navigating
its debt scenario successfully is Financial Discipline at political
level going forward. Financial discipline for a government simply
means the following things:

1. Stop borrowing and spending on highly inflated projects.

2. Stop spending on things that are not priority.
3. Eliminate public resources waste, abuse and theft.
4. Stop acquiring debt with debatable public benefit.
5. Do not borrow for consumption but only for highly
productive investments with clear returns on investment.

This requires serious political will at presidential and cabinet

level. The behaviour by government so far does not inspire
confidence in this area. When the IMF seems to show misgivings
about the Zambian government’s seriousness and commitment
to fiscal discipline, it is reality and nothing to do with politics.
Our government is currently failing and simply needs to shape
up in this area.

The IMF is likely to believe that our government is serious when

our politicians stop spending on huge entourages, first class air
travel, 5 star hotels and expensive vehicles for government
officials. IMF is very likely to take our politicians seriously when
our politicians resolve to clamp down on clearly inflated
government procurement. When our politicians put aside
hypocrisy and genuinely get into the health and education

71
Dr. Caleb Fundanga. “Fit for purpose? An analysis of Zambia’s Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy .
March 2018.
- 266 -
ministries to identify and plug the many loop-holes through
which government is leaking substantial public resources, IMF is
likely to sit up and listen. As things stand, IMF experts do not
take our politicians seriously for very valid reasons. Currently
our politicians are not serious and are playing with the future of
this country.

Economic Affairs, Education and Health combined, have been

allocated a combined $ 4.7 billion in the 2019 budget. This
constitutes about 55% of the entire budget. A forensic look and
focus on how resources are utilised in these 3 functionalities can
give Zambia serious benefits towards Fiscal Discipline.

The PF government has been bold to remove fuel and electricity

subsidies and has pushed a lot of taxes on citizens. Failure to
take the above steps, our politicians will simply be appearing like
hyenas in the eyes of the IMF. There are two sides to the Fiscal
Discipline equation; Revenue and Expenditure. You can do well
by boosting your revenues through over-taxing citizens, but as
long as you continue to spend wastefully, corruptly and selfishly,
it does not help the country in any way. The IMF is fully aware
of this and is still waiting for this government to get serious on
austerity measures on the expenditure side of the equation.
There is still too much reckless spending going on in the
Zambian government.

My proposed Approach to ending Zambia’s debt troubles

As far as my team and I are concerned, we can get Zambia out of

the debt quagmire within 5 years. It is a matter of seriousness
and genuine commitment at leadership level. The following are
key pillars in getting Zambia out of debt troubles:

1. Audit and clean up the entire government machinery and

streamline operations to eliminate public resources waste
and abuse.
2. Introduce austerity measures on non-essential benefits
enjoyed by high ranking government officials including, the
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 President, Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries,
Mayors and Directors.
3. Stop unproductive loan acquisitions.
4. Aggressively invest in areas that will increase employment,
productivity and the tax base.

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- 269 -
NINETEEN
SUMMARY

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“We must widen our individual relationship with time
as a community. Never assume time is our enemy, but
rather see it as an instrument and great ally that
educates us at each stage of our life as a nation”
- KBF

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The following is a summary of the key aspects of how we will
practically transform Zambia towards prosperity and better
quality of life for our citizens:

1. Offer a very clear and bold vision which has the ability
to positively affect the majority of our citizens.
2. Introduce Strong Governance Systems to ensure
discipline, efficiency and prudent utilisation of public
resources.
3. Put in place a budget that supports employment
creation, economic growth and better public services.
4. Pursue an agenda that ensures that Every Youth is
either in School or at Work.
National prosperity is driven by work. The more citizens are
employed productively, the wealthier a nation becomes.
82% of Zambians are under the age of 35 years. If we
educate and train our young people well and ensure they
are all employed, Zambia shall prosper.
Our action plan in this regard includes:
i. Ensure all available youths are employed
ii. Introduce free primary and secondary school
education.
iii. Ensure a minimum of 300,000 youths are undergoing
tertiary training every year.
5. Create a minimum of 500,000 new jobs every year
through initiatives as detailed in table 30 on the next page:

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 Job Creation Key Actions Minimum
Policy Initiative New Jobs
Expected
annually
1 Transform The -80% to be reserved for Zambians 20,000
Public -50% to be reserved for youths
Procurement -Localized procurement approach
System - Bench marking prices tendering approach
2 Transform The -Increase funding to the agriculture sector 100,000
Agriculture sector -Ensure effective agriculture extension
services
- Increase agriculture productivity
- Establish effective market channels
-Transform agriculture into a profitable
business
-Attract more youths into agriculture
3 Support the -Finance & support informal sector 20,000
informal Sector enterprises to grow into formal businesses
4 A house for every -Establish 200 new residential settlements 60,000
Zambian family annually
-Avail 100,000 plots/houses annually
5 Ward Based -Allocate K1 million per ward for 50,000
Development development programs every year
Agenda -Award contracts to local contractors
6 Local Church -Establish a $100 million revolving fund 100,000
Business -Target to finance 20,000 churches
Development - Each church to support the establishment
Agenda of at least 1 new business every year.
7 Production Cities -Establish 3 Production cities annually 100,000
8 Restructure -Actively support citizens to venture into 10,000
Zambia’s economy agriculture, manufacturing, mining &
towards citizens’ banking
ownership. -Support establishment of citizen owned
network of retail franchise outlets.
9 Transform The -Build 200 new schools every year 10,000
Education Sector -Employ all the 20,000 unemployed trained
teachers. There after employ 5,000 every
year.
- Ensure Maximum of 40 pupils per class
-Support 300,000 tertiary students annually
-Achieve 10,000 well trained lecturers
-Adopt education that is inclined towards
practical training.

10 Transform The -Build 200 new health centers every year 10,000
Health Sector -Enforce efficient resource utilization
-Employ 10,000 health workers annually
11 Energy Reforms -Introduce bio-diesel & electric cars 20,000
Total Jobs to be created every year 500,000
Table 36: Summary of estimated jobs to be created annually

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What you should take note of is that initiatives 1 to 5 do not
even require substantial funding to implement but yet they can
result in almost immediate impact in terms of job and wealth
creation in this country. These initiatives only require political
will, proper expenditure priorities to give us up to 250,000 new
jobs every year!

With new businesses and a minimum of 500,000 new jobs being

created every year, Zambia’s tax base will be expanding rapidly.
There will be more workers earning good salaries to contribute to
PAYE tax. There will be more companies generating revenues to
contribute to corporate tax. There will be more Zambians
contributing towards road tax and other taxes. This will make it
possible for us to begin reducing Tax required from each
individual and company until we reach a time when we can tax a
Zambian worker not more than 10% of his monthly income. This
is what we meant by „less taxes and more money in people‟s
pockets!‟

Figure 11: KBF’s key Pillars for Zambia’s Transformation

Figure 11 gives a summary of the key pillars for Zambia’s

Transformation. What is cardinal to note is that once we have

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millions of Zambians employed in productive and wealth
generating jobs, the following things become automatic:

1. High standards of living

2. Elimination of Poverty.
3. Free Primary and Secondary Education.
4. College/university education for every grade 12 leaver.
5. High quality health services.

To create jobs, we need to invest our resources prudently as a

country. We cannot invest prudently if we have a mediocre vision
and poor governance. The thread that binds the three pillars of
transformation is Capable Leadership. Without capable
leadership, it is impossible to formulate a robust national vision.
It is impossible to impose good governance and yes, bad
leadership is highly unlikely to pursue prudent investments.
Therefore, the starting point for Zambia’s transformation is
Capable Leadership. Zambia must insist on a consortium of
citizens with unquestionable capability to offer genuine and bold
leadership.

Rise up and demand for the Zambia you deserve

Every Zambian is intimately aware that our country can do

better than we are doing right now. Most Zambians have an idea
of what is wrong with our country. Some Zambians have some
ideas about what we can do to turn around our fortunes as a
nation. Unfortunately some Zambians have become too fatigued
by our self-serving, unpatriotic and destructive politics to the
extent that they have concluded that things will never get better
in our country. I have met some of our mothers, who out of deep
frustration, now believe that until Jesus Christ comes, our
nation will never experience prosperity.

To the Zambian Citizens, including those who have become so

despondent with the conduct of politicians to the extent of losing
hope, I have a message for you. It is our destiny as a nation to
prosper and by the grace of God, we shall prosper in our life
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time. National Prosperity is possible and a reality other nations
have been experiencing for years now. There are nations on earth
today who also faced similar economic challenges we face at one
point in their history but chose to map out and pursue a better
future for themselves. With perseverance and selfless service, the
citizens of these nations diligently laboured until national
prosperity became a reality. Today, we admire these nations and
count them amongst the luckiest. Countries such as Singapore,
South Korea, Israel, Botswana, Rwanda, Mauritius and China
readily come to mind. At the time of Independence, some of these
nations were no better than Zambia economically. Today, they
are miles ahead of us.

China in particular has posted the following remarkable

economic achievements:

1. China has grown its GDP per capita from $205 in 1980 to
$8,800 today. Zambia’s GDP per capita was $650 in 1980
and is only $1,509.8 today.
2. China has experienced the fasted economic growth of any
country in the world in recent times. In the years 2007,
2008 and 2011 China posted remarkable GDP growths of
28.7%, 28.9% and 24% respectively72.
3. China has become the world’s largest exporter.
4. At over $3 trillion, China has the world’s largest Foreign
Exchange Reserves73. America’s reserves stood at $1.2
trillion in 201874!
5. China has become the world’s second biggest economy.
6. China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty from
1990 to 201775 and has dropped poverty levels from 40% to
only 10%.

72
https://knoema.com/atlas/China/GDP
73
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/foreign-exchange-reserves
74
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/foreign-exchange-reserves
75
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim speaking during a news conference at World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings
in Washington in October 2017.
- 276 -
China achieved these and many other milestones during our life
time. Zambians aged 20 years and above were alive when China
was busy achieving these things. This is not a fairly-tale that
happened 200 years ago. This has been achieved during our
generation and simply demonstrates that it is practically possible
to turn around a nation within a generation!

China and other countries that have performed better did so

during the same global conditions we all faced. The most crucial
and only constant determinant in the success of these nations
was the calibre of national leadership.

As unbelievable as it may sound, there are nations right here,

right now on earth that offer free education from nursery to
university! And by the way, not just any education but the best
education in the world! There are nations right now on earth that
offer free health care of the highest standards in the world. There
are nations that are presided over by ethical and non-corrupt
leaders. There are countries where free speech and the right to
assemble are a reality and not political fiction. Citizens of these
nations resolved they deserved these things and chose to achieve
these for themselves and their future generations. In this regard,
countries such as Denmark, Norway, Greece, Austria, Finland,
Germany and Sweden come to mind76.

CASE STUDY FOR NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

SINGAPORE MODEL

Singapore was once a Third World country which moved to

First World status in one generation (1965- 2000) 35 years.
Singapore is like a little “Dot” at the tip of the Malaysian
Peninsular with 5.5 million people within land area covering
710 square Kilometers. The country‟s population density is
6,500 people per square Kilometer. World Bank holds
Singapore up as model of development, pointing to sound

76
https://europe.graduateshotline.com/free-education.html
- 277 -
policies in urbanization. Rwanda is a classical African
country which is successfully emulating the Singapore‟s
model of National Transformational Development. Singapore
in the Post-World II Era: The Socio-economic conditions of
Singapore during the Post-World War II were characterized
by Acute Poverty, High Unemployment , little Foreign
Investments, Low Education, Poor Health care system, Poor
Housing, Rampant Corruption, Restless Political Climate,
intolerance of Law and Order, External Threats from China,
Indonesia, and USSR, as Singapore was booted out of
Malaysia in 1965. Vision & Values: The founding fathers of
Singapore had vision and values that were pegged on:
Building a harmonious, peaceful, prosperous, multi-racial,
multi-religious, social democratic society based on justice,
equality, integrity and meritocracy; Moving the country from
a Third World Nation to First in one generation (1965 -
2000). They envisioned a Nation led by Leaders of Integrity:
a Corruption-free Society; Disciplined, hard-working, highly
educated, skilled & productive labor; Delayed Gratification:
a society that saves; National Self Reliance; Clean, Green
and Safe society; Tripartitism: Government, Labor &
Business working together; Employment for all; Quality,
Affordable & Sustainable Housing for all; Quality Education,
Health Care, Infrastructure & Living Standard for all; Justice
for all with no tolerance on impunity.

Master Planning: How the Leaders Built Capacity for

Singapore.

The leaders designed and implemented key institutions and

agencies that would drive transformation throughout the
country. These included: Jurong Town Corp. (JTC) to drive
Industrialization; Economic Development Board (EDB);Trade
Development Board (TDB);Urban Redevelopment Authority
(URA); Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board for Savings;
Housing Development Board (HDB);Port of Singapore
Authority (PSA);National Productivity Board (NPB);National
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 Wage Council (NWC); National Service (NS) for Security;
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB);World-class
Infra-structure & Transport (MND); and Infocom
Development Authority (IDA) to drive E-Government. The
founding fathers of Singapore then focused on Job Creation
through Industrialization & Foreign Investments; Wealth
Creation through Affordable Public Housing; Human
Resource Investments through Quality Education,
Educational Grants & Merit Scholarships; Creation of
Healthy, Clean, Green & Safe Environment; Generous Skills
Development Fund (SDF);Health Subsidies via A,B,C wards
/ CPF MediSave; Scouting for next generation Leaders;
Sympathetic Social Welfare Department; Distribution of
budget surplus into citizen‟s CPF; Low Corporate & Personal
Income Tax; and Low Inflation.

Key Economic Indicators for Singapore 2013:

The above strategies and tactics eventually delivered the

First World Nation of Singapore in the year 2000. As of the
year 2013, Singapore was enjoying the following key
economic indicators: Employment for all; Quality Housing for
all; Quality Education for all; Quality Health Care for all;
Justice for all; and Quality Infrastructure for all.

Singapore is also recognized as having the number 1 Port in

the World; The best World Financial Center; The number 1
Airport in the World; The best World Education Center; The
number 1 Airline in the World; The best World
Communication Center; The number 1 country in e-
Government.; The best World Medical Center; The number 1
Most Desired Place in the World to Live & Work (2012) for
MNCs; and with number of Passengers / Visitors being 53
million in 2013 which was equivalent to 145,205 visitors
arriving in Singapore daily77

77
Source: EIZ National Transformation Strategy-agriculture, 2015
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As human beings made in the image of God, we have the right to
conceptualise and embrace a prosperous future. It is our birth
right as humanity to debate and interrogate what we need to do
to attain this God given heritage. All in all, only when we rise up
as a united force can we make this future a reality.

Together; Tongas, Bembas, Nsengas, Lozis, Namwangas and all

Zambian tribes, we must join hands to achieve our birth-right of
a Prosperous Zambia. This time, a Zambian politician will be
accorded only two choices; either to join us in our mission for a
prosperous Zambia or to get relegated to the rubbish-bins of
history as an enemy of progress.

A Zambia where all our young people will get the best education
is possible. A Zambia where every citizen who is willing to work
will find a job is a very practical prospect. It is possible to have a
Zambia with high quality health services. A Zambia where every
family owns a house of their own is not just a day-dream. A
Zambia free of oppression by a handful of criminals
masquerading as political leaders is possible. A Zambia led by
genuine and true leaders is very much a reality up to us as
citizens.

To every young Zambian my instruction is this: get that National

Registration Card; get that Voter’s Card and demand for a
prosperous Zambia through your vote. Vote for a government
you deserve. Vote for your kind of government. Zambia Must
Prosper!

I am Kelvin Fube Bwalya (KBF) and I am running for

President in 2021

-Run with me for a prosperous Zambia!

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Appendix i

List of tables

Name of Table Pg
Table1: KBF’s Zambia Must Prosper Vision in summary 11
Table 2: List of Zambians arrested by our government for political activism 33
Table 3: estimated monthly expenditure of one family earning K1 million 58
Table 4: estimated expenditure of 100 families earning K10,000 each 58
Table 5: List of suspected highly inflated projects 60
Table 6: 68
Table 7: Permanent jobs after building of the 500 housing units settlement 76
Table 8: minimum jobs in an agri-city 85
Table 9: Break-down of jobs per suburb 85
Table 10: break-down of jobs in a section 86
Table 11: break-down of minimum jobs in a resort fishing town 90
Table 12: Details of potential jobs in a livestock Town 93
Table 13: projected jobs per sector for a mining town 95
Table 14: projected jobs for a steel city 100
Table 15: projected jobs for a border town 101
Table 16: Total population of Zambia & its neighbours 107
Ta bl e 17: Projected a nnua l export vol umes by yea r 2031 108
Table 18: planned business brands 114
Table 19: 1,000 business outlets to be established in foreign countries 116
Table 20: products to be manufactured in Zambia 117
Table 21: number of students enrolled in each university 133
Table 22: Zambia’s youth population broken down by age 134
Table 23: number of candidates sitting for various exams in Zambia 145
Table24: categorisation of farmers by land cultivated 156
Table 25: National 2016/2017 Vs 2017/2018 Crop Forecast Survey, Area, Expected Production 157
Table 26: current livestock in Zambia[1] and new targets 163
Table 27: latest crop production and proposed new targets 164
Table 28: average household animal stock based on current figures 165
Table 29: average household animal stock based on our target figures 165
Table 30: calculations of ideal annual revenues per type animal per household 166
Table 31: proposed minimum breeding stock per type animal per household 166
Table 32: Summary of infrastructure strategy 216
Table 33: Potential permanent jobs in a livestock town 224
Table 34: 2019 proposed budget expressed in Zambian Kwacha 234
Table 35: list of some of Zambia's debts acquired between 2011 and 2018 242
Table 36: Summary of estimated jobs to be created annually 252

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Appendix ii

List of figures and diagrams

Name of figure or diagram Pg

Figure 1: summary of aspects of governance 27
Figure 2: Proposed 500 housing units settlement 75
Figure 3: Schematic depiction of an Agri-city 82
Figure 4: An Agri-city Section in more details 84
Figure 5: Available Zambian farm land 87
Figure 6: Proposed layout of a resort fishing town 88
Figure 7: Livestock Town basic layout 91
Figure 8: Livestock town in more details 92
Figure 9: Foreign market penetration strategy 110
Figure 10: suitable livestock in different provinces of Zambia. 167
Figure 11: Summary of economic benefits of bio-diesel in the EU 202
Figure 12: KBF’s key Pillars for Zambia’s Transformation 253

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