Northern Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Beauty Phiri has attributed the decrease in inflation in the province to good rains the province received and the growth of the fish farming sector.
The Zamstats May Bulletin revealed that Northern province had the lowest regional inflation rates, dropping from 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent with the highest being Western Province despite inflation decreasing from 22.5 to 20.1 percent.
Phiri explained that the surplus from fish farming contributed to the province’s economic stability despite the agricultural sector being affected by a drought.
She emphasized the government’s commitment to developing the tourism sector through the Northern Circuit project and outlined a comprehensive development plan aimed at revitalizing the province’s economy by 2026.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times (ZBT), Phiri said the province enjoyed a considerable amount of rainfall and the yield has been massive at the same time the farmers have been trading lots of fish within and across the border of Tanzania.
“The reason why we have a lower inflation and lower decrease in the same is that this province is endowed with fish farming, they have closed Lake Tanganyika, but the farmers had stored some fish which they are selling and the fish that they are selling to Tanzania and other places is giving them money because this is when they have just closed Tanganyika, and it cannot be a huge decrease because this is when the market has opened and the decrease cannot be more than two percent or three because this is when it had just happened, money is exchanging hands and the economy is picking because there is money in circulation, and the people are able to buy one or two things that are why we have those statistics but we might see an increase by July or August by then their maize would have dried up properly,” She said.
“We are working at revamping and utilizing several sectors such as tourism because the market for fish and maize is mostly targeted towards Nakonde, specifically Tanzania but if we can do a lot of advertising to ensure that we display the resources that the Northern Circuit has believe me that we will not be talking in Kwacha we will be talking in dollars because some of the best fish in the Country is found in lake Tanganyika and we might utilize that to export and contribute to foreign exchange at the end of the day we will not be dependent on copper,” She said.
