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Tech

The University of Zambia – UNZA has secured funding to completed the construction of additional hotels which had stalled following the countrywide re-scoping and suspension of some infrastructure projects.

UNZASU vice president who is currently the acting president confirmed that the revised date of completion for the new hostels which had stalled is end of this year 2021.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Time – ZBT, UNZASU acting President Gregory Chisha stated that Government through the office of the President released the funds two weeks ago. Chisha said K20 million has been pumped in to complete the 6 hostel at the University of Zambia.

He said for the past years the institution has been facing acute accommodation crisis due to limited hostels which will soon be history.

“The school has been facing a lot of challenges in terms of accommodation due to limited hostels and these additional hostels have been under construction for a long time. But with the coming of the government through the office of the President, this will soon be the history to the institution”, he told ZBT.

Chisha further stated that “as a student Union, we managed to engage the government to come to our aid regarding the hostel construction which had stalled. We appreciate the fact that government has now released the funds and this is the good move”.

He said the move by office of the president is a good move and it has been done at a right time because the completion of the new hostels will help the institution to have enough bed spaces on campus.

He added that with the coming of the first years this year, the Student Union is doing everything possible in order to help out the first year student. The student leader has since called upon various stakeholders to help the institution with face masks and hand sanitizers now that the first years are in school.

He said the school has put in some prevent measures to prevent the spread of the corona virus or Covid 19. “As a student Union, we are making sure that the students are masking up and we have also stationed some hand sanitizers in places which are frequently visited by students.

And Janet Banda, a third year student has said the pumping in of the money to complete the hostels is a good move because most of the student do not accommodation within school. She said from the time she has been at UNZA, some student who have accommodation outside the the university campus have been involved in road traffic accident on their way to school.

“During the time that have been at UNZA, about three to five students have been involved in road traffic accidents on their way to school because of not being accommodated on campus. But all this will come to an end or be greatly reduced by the end of this year,” she said.

Government had also initiated the construction of hostels at the Copperbelt University – CBU and the Evelyn Hone College. All these projects stalled but are expected to this year be completed following the line inclusion in the 2021 budget.

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The University of Zambia - UNZA has

Sport

Zambia Swimming Union (ZASU) president Guy Phiri has confirmed that the National Swimming Competition (NSC) is set to take place in April 2021 after the competition was put on hold in December 2020 due to the covid pandemic.

Phiri said the competition that is set to take place on April, 17, 2020 at an estimated cost of K220,000 at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) will be without spectators as advised by the Ministry of Health due to covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times (ZBT), Phiri said the union is checking on how the top swimmers are doing, it is a good opportunity to get time for the top local swimmers so that we assess who is performing and who is not, and that helps with selection to national teams for international events.

“The event is going to be without spectators, which is unfortunate but because of limitations due to the covid pandemic, we have to be very careful on limiting the number at the event but we are going to be streaming the event.

“We haven’t had any entries yet, but we are expecting 30 clubs from around the country, so we are expecting to have 300 swimmers across the country to come and compete in the event,” Phiri told ZBT.

In terms of running the federation, we need support from the Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ), National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the mother body which is the International Federation for Swimming (IFS).

The union president said, the biggest challenge they are facing is to have public swimming pools in all provinces. We are appealing to government to consider having a public swimming pool to host competitive swimming in every provincial headquarters, which should be put together by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing through the council.

“We used to have swimming pools in all major towns and cities of Zambia, but the various councils leased them out to private investors, but most of these have also failed to run them successfully,” he said. He said the Olympic Swimming pool at OYDC has also been given to a private investor to do something with it, but the investor has completely failed, the pool lying in a terrible state.

Phiri said when it comes to spreading the sport across the country, the union has outreach programs, called “learn to swim program” where the union teaches people how to swim. He said the union also engages schools in swimming, which is predominated by coach’s associations to run the programs in schools and these Swimming coaches are well trained and qualified.

Phiri told ZBT that the union provides training for coaching and certification for the coachers. We also provide training for international coaching which is recognized worldwide and the union relies on the international trained coaches to implement programs within schools and when those school swimmers graduate, they become part of the national swimmers team and join registered clubs and compete in the national league.

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Zambia Swimming Union (ZASU) president Guy Phiri

Agribusiness

Zambia Seed Company Limited (Zamseed) has revealed that the good rainfall that has been experienced this year has recharged water tables and dams across the country, and this is expected to result in an increase of about 40% in wheat production.

The leading and oldest seed producer in Zambia further stated that the recently developed Harrier wheat variety has received positive feedback from farmers as it is one of the highly sought out varieties on the market.

Zamseed Director of Research Dr. Bhola Verma said the seed is of high quality, produces a highEd yield and farmers are able to harvest about 9 tonnes of wheat per hectare because there is no crop loss that will be experienced.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Verma said the harrier seed does not lodge or lay down on the ground no matter how much one irrigates or fertilises and this in turn leads to high yields and makes it easy to harvest because it remains standing.

Verma said the variety has good grain quality and is dependent on how much water and fertiliser one applies to it. He revealed that availability of water can be a challenge sometimes due to low rainfall which leads to water tables not been recharged and this may result in low production because some farmers end up reducing the planting area.

He however noted that due to the good rainfall that has been experienced this year, water tables have been recharged and dams are full, therefore it is expected that wheat production will increase by about 40% compared to the past three years as water was a limitation.

Verma further told ZBT that there are currently two dominating varieties on the market which are harrier and shungu which are selling very well. He also said that there is need for the wider market usage so people can benefit from the variety as Zambia has some of the best yields in the region.

He noted that a new wheat variety called falcon was introduced on the market last month and is also on high demand. He said the falcon seed variety is better than harrier in grain quality, has a higher yield and has less damage because of the long horns which destruct birds.

The Zamseed Director of Research added that when you increase the height of the crop, you get better yield too. He said that the new falcon wheat variety contains 14% protein and 35% gluten, which has market benefits.

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Zambia Seed Company Limited (Zamseed) has revealed

Mining

The Gemstones sector has initiated a phased re-opening process in line with global demand that is mostly driven by the vast Indian market.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a far reaching impact on the gemstone sector with only about two companies remaining in operation at half capacity. Only the large scale mines have manage to keep some of their operations running

Currently only Grizzly mining limited is operating at half capacity while Kagem Mining suspended its critical operations since March last year due to the detrimental impact stemming from the pandemic.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic all but critical operations at the mine have remained suspended since March 30, 2020 but now Kagem has since started reopening its principal operations in a phased manner starting in the second week of March 2021.

Emeralds and Semi-Precious Stones Mining Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) said not much has been happening in the gemstone sector since last year except for a few companies that have been operating at half capacity.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times- ZBT, ESMAZ president Victor Kalesha said due to the pandemic, companies are failing to sustain their operating capital as Indian buyers, who are the largest buyers, have not been able to travel as a result of the lockdown in that country.

“The sector is not doing well due to the effects of the outbreak of Covid-19, there’s literally not much that has been happening in the gemstone sector except for a few companies that have been operating at half capacity level.

“As usual, the Indian buyers are the ones that are more connected to the gemstone sector in Zambia, so if they are not coming, it means there is limited to no money flow for operations especially for the small scale miners who are almost closing down because some of them cannot even pump water on their own due to lack of funds,” Kalesha said.

He disclosed that currently, over 500 gemstone licenses have been issued across the country but only about one per cent were operational due to lack of operating capital and equipment. Kalesha appealed to the Government to find a window which it can use to support or empower the small scale miners to ensure that they do not completely close down.

“We have been facing a challenge of lack of operational capital and equipment, at the moment we are using pick and shovel, but it’s not ideal. So we are lobbying the government to find a window to empower the local miners in the gemstone sector” he said.

“We are also appealing to Zambian owned banks and financial institutions to be flexible in terms of giving out loans to Zambian entrepreneurs especially the local miners. Our members are unable to access loans because of the exorbitant interest rates and steep collateral requirements.

The banks, which in Zambia are mostly foreign owned are not willing to engage local miners and give loans because they feel that emerald and gemstones mining is a risky business,” he added.

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The Gemstones sector has initiated a phased

Companies

Tankers Drivers Union – TDU has refuted claims that local tanker drivers had planned to go on strike if Government did not implement the policy that reserves a 50% quota of awarding transportation contracts to locally based fuel transporters by all Oil marketing companies operating in the country.

However, the TDU has instead accused Oil Marketing Companies – OMCs of double standards and taking decisions that they are well aware will just cause discontent and lead to fuel shortages in the country.

TDU president Bob Ndalama said the union did not have any plans of going on strike but wanted to alert government that foreign fuel tanker drivers are being prioritized over the local tank drivers and companies.

The Union said the misunderstanding was caused by one of the tanker drivers, Billan Manengo, who said they will go on strike if government continued to prioritise foreign tank drivers over the local drivers.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambia Business Times (ZBT), Ndalama said the union is concerned that there is no order when it come to fuel or petroleum transportation in Zambia.

We have a situation were we note that when Zambian tank drivers go out to other countries to load fuel, from countries such as Tanzania or Mozambique to bring in the country, they are left out and only Tanzanian and Zimbabwean trucks are allowed to load fuel.

“We are not thinking of going on strike, all that the drivers wanted was to let the government know that while we are promoting foreigner truck drivers to work in Zambia, our own of local fuel tankers are packed,” the union leader said.

He said when government is talking about creating employment for the local people, the energy sector is moving in the opposite direction, because foreign tank drivers are being promoted or favored at the expense of the locals.

“If you go to Juba company you will find that trucks are parked, if you go to Kalif Motors or Swift Motors, you will find that trucks are parked and every other Zambian based transporting company that deals in the transportation of fuel products, you will find that trucks are parked,” he said.

Ndalama said only Zimbabwean Truck drivers are operating and if you look further, you will find that Zimbabwe does not own any company that provides fuel products to Zambia, they just go and pick it from Mozambique and bring it into Zambia.

He said from the look of things, somewhere somehow, there is a hand that is controlling the situation and government needs to be aware of such occurrence in the country because President Edgar Lungu is trying his level best to promote the local truck drivers and local employment.

Speaking in the same interview, TDU secretary general Humphrey Kapesha told ZBT that said government had a policy which allocated 50% of all transportation deals for fuel products imported into Zambia to be awarded to local transporters.

This was re-affirmed two months ago, suppliers were complaining that the landing cost of fuel into the country was too high and government had to put in measures so that the cost of landing fuel was reduced.

He said when approaching the government, the same OMCs were quoting prices for Zambian transporters and if you go around the garages, local trucks are parked, they are only giving business to Zimbabwean truck drivers.

Moreover, according to the SADC protocol, you will never find a foreign tanker carrying fuel going to Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean government has reserved that sector strictly for locals. Go to Tanzania, Malawi it’s the same, so why should Zambia not simply reciprocate?.

Kepesha said government should take keen interest in the operations of OMCs as they have been trying to have the price of fuel increased even when there were measures that have been put in measures. Some of these OMCs are simply ignoring the governments directive, so there must be other interest they are serving.

He said government had removed 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum imports and went further to remove duty on petroleum products, but unfortunately, these OMCs have now gone to hire Zimbabwean tanker drivers to bring fuel in Zambia, giving the excuse that Zambian transporters are expensive.

“Government should consider reciprocating what other countries are doing were only Zambian transporters are given first priority. The country now has because more capacity and volume. We have over 1000 trucks now, unlike some time back when we had limited trucks, local Zambian transporters have continued to invest in acquire more trucks horses and tankers”, Kepesha said.

He said government should come up with a policy to equally restrict foreign tankers and drivers from transporting fuel destined for Zambia for those countries that are not allowing Zambian transporter to truck in their goods and services. Let’s do so just like it is in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, he told ZBT.

Energy minister Mathew Nkhuwa is on record to have threatened to withdraw Puma energy operating license in Zambia after it emerged that the OMC had consistently not replenished its retail service stations even after a deal had been struck to abolish VAT and other import duties and avert a fuel price hike.

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Tankers Drivers Union - TDU has refuted

Tech

The project to re-launch Zambia Airways as a National Airline has reached 90% completion stage and the board of directors will soon announce the revised date of launching the airline.

The plans to relaunch the National airline are still underway despite the delays in commencing the operations. Recently Government attributed the delays in launching the National airline to the Covid-19 pandemic, which had seen national airports shut across the world.

But Zambia Airways commercial manager Nobert Bwanga said the management were currently working on the regulatory requirements which were needed to fulfill before before commencing operations.

He said currently the project was sitting at about 85-90 per cent completion stage on all activities that are needed to be undertaken before operations commence.

Speaking in an interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Bwanga said so far testing configuration and identification of offices had been done.

“So after we fulfill the regulatory requirements, we will wait for the board of directors to give us the new date for launch based on the progress we will have made and what we will have managed to achieve.

“We are currently working on finalizing these, but for us to start operations we are waiting for the board to advise, the board is expected to have a meeting either at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month,” he said.

The new airline is a joint venture between the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Ethiopian Airlines – ET. The joint venture is meant to facilitate best practice knowledge transfer as ET remain Africa’s most resilient and largest airline.

In 2018, the Government entered into a joint partnership with Ethiopian Airlines on a 55/45 equity deal. Zambia has had no national carrier since 1994 when the airline, Zambia Airways was liquidated.

The country has however invested over US$1 billion in rebuilding its airport infrastructure that has seen the Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda and Copperbelt’s Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airports have completely new modern international terminals while Livingstone Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula international airport already commissioned.

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The project to re-launch Zambia Airways as

Mining

Information has emerged that the much anticipated building up of gold reserves by the Bank of Zambia – BOZ risks being derailed as the biggest gold producer in Zambia, Kansanshi Mine (a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals – FQM) is yet to start supplying gold to BOZ.

A check conducted by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT has revealed that the two parties seem to have hit a dead end in negotiations and finalizing for the delivery to start under turn gold purchase agreement due to a dispute on which currency is to be used for settlement or payment.

For the deal to make economic sense for the country, BOZ needs to buy the gold in the local currency – Kwacha while FQM seems to want to be paid in foreign currency – US dollars. The volatility of the Kwacha which has shed over 60% value in one year is likely to be the matter behind the dispute.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed between the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) and Kansanshi Mine in 2020, the central bank is supposed to have commenced the purchase of gold by now. BOZ has so far only confirmed the purchase from Zambia Gold Company, a subsidiary of ZCCM-IH.

The Zambia central bank has maintained that it estimates to purchase around 25,200 ounces of gold from Kansanshi Copper and Gold Mine per year. According to information made available to ZBT by BOZ, the central bank has restated that the purchases of gold from Kansanshi Mine will be in Kwacha.

BOZ however said there is no set target of purchase in the medium term as this exercise is an ongoing process and will be dictated by the conditions set out in the respective gold purchase agreements. In addition, the central bank intends to purchase around 2,000 ounces of gold with a minimum of 88% purity from Zambia Gold Company per year.

Meanwhile, Kansanshi Mine Assistant General Manager John Gladston told ZBT in a separate discussion that the price of gold is always quoted in United States Dollars (US$) per troy ounce as determined by the London Bullion Market Association, adding that this is a global standard practice in gold trading.

Gladston was responding to a question on whether FQM’s Kanshanshi Mine would be able to sell its gold to BOZ in Kwacha, which is the local currency and preferred deal medium of exchange by Zambia in order to meaningfully build up gold reserves as an alternative to only holdings US dollar reserves.

BOZ new Governor Christopher Mvunga has been challenged to put in place a more aggressive gold buying plan to shore up Zambia’s gold reserves which can be used as a buffer to defend the Kwacha and restore the local currency value and ultimately the citizens incomes purchasing power.

Kansanshi in 2020 produced gold worth over US$210 million, which if mopped up by the central bank together with produce from Zambia Gold Company, can build up about US$1 billion in reserves within a five year period. This can turn around the ability of the central bank to defend the Kwacha value for the benefit of the majority of Zambians.

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Information has emerged that the much anticipated

Mining

Zambia can only materially benefit from the rising copper prices if there is a mechanism for harnessing export earnings. The local currency can also be supported if copper export proceeds are banked locally, says Musa Dodia – the Private Sector Development Association Chairperson.

There is need to engage the large scale copper exporters to negotiate for them to start banking their proceeds locally so that the country can leverage its high export earnings from its mineral wealth to have huge US dollar deposits.

Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) have in the recent
days been trading at over US$8,000 per ton, it’s some highs hovering around US$9,600 and US$9,100 per ton.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times- ZBT, Private Sector Development Association (PSDA) chairperson Yusuf Dodia said export earnings from mining companies in Zambia do not entirely come back to Zambia which means that the country does not benefit fully from the Copper earnings.

Dodia said the current copper prices is something that ought to benefit the country substantially and help the kwacha to appreciate but the challenge is that the money from the exports of copper do not come back to Zambia.

“The current copper prices is something that ought to benefit our economy quite substantially because in recent days we have seen copper prices go up to as high as US$9,600 per ton, this is something we have not seen before, they are very high.

“Some years ago when we were considering charging windfall tax for mining industry, the trigger price for that was US$7,000 dollars per ton and now we have highs of over US$9,000, therefore, these are much better days for copper pricing and a copper producing country.

“Now the challenge we have is that this money does not come into Zambia but it’s proudly recorded as part of our export earnings and a contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a huge part of export earnings but it never really comes to Zambia,” he said.

Dodia said this needs to be addressed with urgency to ensure the country benefits while the prices are still high. He said if the money from the export of copper comes into the country, the Kwacha can immediately begin to appreciate and adding value from the current K22 per US dollar to about K10 per US dollar.

“We will also see inflation come down rapidly from the current 22.2 per cent to single digit if we have a mechanism for harnessing these export earnings in Zambia and allowing those exports to build the Zambian economy.

“Harnessing the export earnings will enable the country to finance the growth of the economy, the diversification of the economy to empower Zambians who are running businesses in Zambia to borrow this money in order to expand their businesses to be able to pay more taxes to the government,” Dodia said.

He said this will enable Government to finance its national budget from domestic revenues and be able to finance its own development agenda and growth of the economy through infrastructure development.

“So the impact on the economy would be phenomenal to the extent that within the next ten years this economy will be self-sufficient and the GDP per capita will rise to about US$3,000 to US$4,000,” Dodia added.

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Zambia can only materially benefit from the

Markets

The stimulus package that government had launched through the Central Bank (Bank of Zambia) meant to inject liquidity by easing repayment of loans for corporates mainly through banks and extending repayment for local companies who borrow mostly through non-bank financial institutions has effectively been derailed by technocrats.

The stimulus package of K10 billion would have by now eased liquidity and loan repayment challenges that ensued on the back of Covid 19 pandemic that had disrupted business especially for local companies, but accessing the stimulus funds by micro finance institutions which actually lend to local businesses has effectively been curtailed.

Despite the change in the leadership at BOZ that saw Dr. Denny Kalyalya dropped and replaced with Christopher Mvunga, the disbursement of the stimulus funds have not improved with most local businesses continuing to complain of tight liquidity in the market and lack of support from the government for their businesses to survive the impact of the pandemic.

So far, only K4.1 billion out of the total K7.9 billion approved under the COVID-19 stimulus package has been disbursed. This is less than half of the total K10 billion stimulus package that was announced to aid financial sector and in effect businesses survive the Covid 19 first wave pandemic.

The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) last year announced a K10 billion targeted medium-term refinancing facility aimed at cushioning the adverse effects of COVID-19 on enterprises and individuals, with the funds expected to be distributed for onward lending through commercial banks.

According to the targeted medium-term refinancing facility report dated February 16 2021, BoZ received applications worth K9.3 billion from 13 commercial banks and 18 non-banking institutions.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) chief executive officer Leonard Mwanza said out of the K9.3 billion worth of applications received, only applications worth K7.9 billion were approved.

“So we [banks] have made some progress in terms of accessing funds from BoZ, the last report of February 2021, BoZ received applications from 13 banks amounting to K7.3 billion and 18 applications from non-banking institutions amounting to K1.9 billion. The total is K9.3 billion”.

“In terms of disbursements, out of the total approvals, K4.1 billion was disbursed representing a 41 per cent. From this, K2.8 billion went to nine commercial banks while K1.1 billion went to 11 non-banking institutions,” Mwanza said.

He said the number of people that have accessed the funds now stands at 36,987 out of which 302 were corporate customers and 36,685 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), households and individuals. He however did not give the breakdown between SME’s and individuals.

Banda said this has helped to improve liquidity within the financial [banking] system and has also helped financial service providers to provide relief to the various customers who were looking for help.

“It is a continuous process because we still have some money which has not yet been disbursed so I think as we go through the second wave, we expect that some financial institutions will continue to ask the Central Bank to release funds which are in turn channeled to businesses, individuals who might have applied for help in terms of improving their liquidity.

So this package has helped banks but more importantly businesses and individuals who are banked in the economy,” he said.

But analysts say the amounts that have been accessed by Micro finance institutions are the ones that would have a direct impact on most local businesses and individuals as these institutions are the ones that mostly lend to locals.

If you look at the K1.9 billion accessed so far, this amount is too small compared to the size of the informal sector and even the balance sheet of the micro finance sector. Moreover, President Lungu had issued a directive for BOZ to review the criteria used as only the multinational companies with bank accounts will end up accessing these funds when its actually meant for Zambian citizens and local companies and SMEs.

There is need to understand that most governments in most functional economies are even paying grants or stimulus checks to their citizens and local businesses to keep them afloat due to the negative Covid impact.

But what we are seeing in Zambia is that BOZ can not disburse even the conservative K10 billion stimulus fund for loan restructuring and offering of repayment holidays to local businesses through non-bank financial institutions, that’s how you end up with a dissatisfied society that government does not care about the plight of its citizens and their businesses.

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The stimulus package that government had launched

Markets

aYo Zambia has passed the one million customer mark in one year of its existence inspite of launching at the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020.

In a statement made available to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, the microinsurer aYo Zambia is further aiming to double its market share in 2021 as it looks to give many Zambians as possible access to insurance.

The company offers hospitalisation and Life Insurance Cover through two insurance products, ‘Send with Care’ and ‘Recharge with Care’ and has seen access to insurance services and related claims grow in its first year of operation.

aYo Zambia’s ‘Send with Care’ and ‘Recharge with Care’ products cater for all MTN subscribers. aYo Recharge with Care offers life and hospital insurance cover every time customers recharge their MTN airtime.

aYo Zambia chief executive officer Andrew Nkolola, said consumer anxieties around Covid and its related economic challenges had heightened awareness of the need for protection and overall help in the event of either loss of life or hospitalisation.

“We are committed to helping our customers secure their financial wellbeing in these challenging times. In 2021, we will continue to put a strong emphasis on further benefit and cover enhancements to cater to the evolving needs of our customers and the market,” Nkolola said.

Insurance penetration in Zambia like bank accounts had been slow owing to the traditional distribution and customer acquisition models that key market players had adopted. However, Just like the way mobile wallet accounts have transformed the penetration of basic banking services, micro insurance via mobile phones is expected to push insurance penetration to a whole new level.

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aYo Zambia has passed the one million