Public Sector Development Association (PSDA) President Yusuf Dodia has challenged the Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC) to invest in Indeni Petroleum Refinery Company Limited to reclaim the company’s viability to the energy sector in refining fuel products locally.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times (ZBT) Dodia emphasized that the importation of fuel into the Country is an expensive venture but the reviving of Indeni will enable the Country to create the necessary value addition which is essential to the economy.
“Value is what IDC must promote, right now we are importing finished fuel from abroad which is the most expensive fuel we can buy, and yet if we brought in the feedstock as Indeni was designed, push it through Tazama to Ndola, and begin to go back to refining our fuel that is the most sensible value addition investment for IDC to be doing and to expand it by opening Indeni Phase two or phase three,” he said.
Dodia stated that IDC must also consider investing in ZESCO to sanitize the Country’s electricity shortfall which is almost crippling the economy.
He questioned some of the investments that IDC has made in the past stating, “IDC is the biggest state-owned enterprise so when they make a contract that is worth $500 million the people of Zambia suffer the consequences, as things stand IDC is not been seen as a partner for investment but a dumping ground where when your business is not doing well or where you want to make a big profit, 10 years ago IDC bought two milling companies, and there was no explanation, and now they are considering to buy a farm and they are using public money, we have an argument that Government should not be in the business of running business” he said.
However, adding to the call made by the World Bank to Zambia to the removal of the Republic President from the IDC Board, Dodia remarked “With some of these investments if one wanted to challenge IDC where do you go when the Chairman is the head of state, in a normal good cooperate setting, the Head of State or the chairman should not seat on any of the lower units for which he may ask to arbitrate, by the President not being associated with IDC it allows for transparency,” he said.
