The Zambia Association of Manufactures – ZAM has questioned the wisdom in ZESCO’s decision to shortlist ten (10) Zimbabwean and South African companies who have since been invited to submit sealed bids at the expense of local companies
In a statement made available to Zambian Business Times – ZBT, ZAM Chief Executive Officer Florence Muleya stated that the decision by ZESCO management to only engage foreign firms for the supply of wooden poles on the basis that Zambian companies do not have adequate capacity to meet the procurement demand is not supported by facts on the ground.
She said following extensive consultation with their members, ZAM has noted that the decision indeed overlooked local suppliers of wooden poles. Primarily, the opportunity was not locally advertised before it was extended to foreign companies, to substantiate that no local capacity existed.
Muleya further stated that this stood to disadvantage local companies with the capacity to meet the procurement demand. “Moreover, one of our members, a major supplier of treated wooden electrical poles to ZESCO for many years, boasts of a total installed plant capacity of 60,000 poles”.
She further added that in 2022, the said company has planned to produce a total of 30,000 wooden poles validating the capacity possessed by local manufacturers who were unfortunately left out of the bid process.
ZAM has since urged all key stakeholders and consumers of goods and services to always think local first and the Association has re-echoed the commitment to supporting and promoting the production and consumption of Zambian products and services to revive the Zambian economy.
“We look forward to the re-consideration by ZESCO to engage our local manufacturers in the sealed bids”, the ZAM CEO stated.
On 31st of march, 2022, the Zambian Business Times – ZBT published an exclusive article that revealed that the Copperbelt Forestry Company (CFC), a Zambian wholly-owned company which was incorporated in 2000 as a management buy out company after the privatization of ZAFFICO has disclosed that it has the capacity to supply ZESCO with the required poles.
CFC has confirmed to ZBT that ZESCO has since engaged them (Copperbelt Forestry Company – CFC) through a meeting that was held mid-mornings of 31 March 2022 on concerns that they had been sidelined. ZESCO stated that they thought the company was not yet in operation after the fire situation it had in the late months of 2020.
When asked why CFC was not initially considered, the company told ZBT that they are not sure if ZESCO will shortlist them or call them back, but confirmed that they have been advised to write back to the managing director and the head of procurement, stating that the previous applications to supply ZESCO with wooden poles might not have reached the Head of Procurement and the Managing Director, CFC stated.
