A privately held University of Lusaka – UNILUS is currently construction a brand new campus at Chongwe in Lusaka Province. Works at the Chongwe campus have advanced and attracted the tour of ministry of commerce and trade Kayula Siame and the Zambia Development Agency – ZDA team.
During the tour of the construction site, the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) says that with Agriculture been considered one of the 5-priority sector in the country, it lacks the local relevant skills required to establish a vibrant Agro-processing sector.
ZDA Acting Director General Matongo Matamwandi has disclosed that most investors in Agribusiness do not find Local skills in Biotechnology and has since urged The University of Lusaka (UNILUS) to pioneer programmes in the field of Bio- Technology. Matamwandi explained that most investors have had to request for work permit for Bio-Technologists to support the agro processing sector, which in 2018 recorded a projected investment value of US$24 million.
The ZDA director was speaking when he, Ministry of Commerce PS and UNILUS Vice Chancellor professor Pinalo Chifwanakeni toured the construction of University of Lusaka Chongwe Campus, which will cater for over five thousand medical students in the first phase.
Meanwhile Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry Kayula Siame stated that UNILUS is a good case study of Domestic Direct Investment displaying how a whole Zambian Company, financially supported by the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) can grow into a regional Business and very soon an international business.
She noted that UNILUS project is a clear testimony that even Zambia investors can succeed and perform competitively across sector including education. “Most Zambians want to be where UNILUS is when they just start their investment forgetting that there is a process to building a successful business. We are looking forward to the completion of phase one of the construction process and hopefully the start of phase two”.
The permanent secretory noted that the University is also providing many business opportunities for Zambia SMEs and that the ministry is looking at how other Zambians can be linked to these opportunities.
She has since called on ZDA to see to it that other Zambian businesses get linked to these business opportunities at various levels.
In addition, UNILUS Vice Chancellor and founder prof Pinalo Chinfwankeni revealed that the new campus is sitting on 40 acres of land and is worth US$19.5 million would focus on providing excellent education standards to stand as a center of excellence in the region.
The professor also requested for extended incentives saying, “Currently it looks like the law does not provide incentive for any re-investment. We got attractive incentives on the first project and we are grateful, but now we even need more help because the project is much bigger and we need to import a lot of equipment and accessories,” he said.
Chifwankeni thanked the permanent Secretory and ZDA for the visit to the construction site of the new Chongwe Campus.
