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The Central Statistical Office – CSO which has been rebranded as Zambia Statistics Angency – ZSA has announced that the year on year inflation rate as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index – CPI for the month of October 2019 has increased to 10.7 percent from 10.5 percent recorded in September 2019.

The increase in inflation means that an average prices of goods and services increased by 10.7 percent between October 2018 and October 2019.

Addressing the media that included the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in Lusaka on October 31, 2019, ZSA Intermin Statistician General Mulenga Musepa has desclosed that the increase in the annual inflation was mainly attributed to food items price movement adding that the increase in the food annual rate of inflation was mainly attributed to price increase in products such as Breakfast mealie meal, Roller mealie meal, Maize grain, Rice imported, Meats and Meat products.

Mulenga added that annual food inflation rate for October 2019 was recorded at 13.3 percent compared to 12.4 percent recorded in September 2019 attributing the increase to price movements of food items.

“The annual non-food inflation rate for October 2019 was recorded at 7.8 percent compared to 8.3 percent recorded in September 2019 indicating a decrease and this is attributed to Transport, ” He said

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The Central Statistical Office - CSO which

Tech

Zambia’s largest independent power producer Maamba Collieries – MCL has demanded that ZESCO should clear outstanding debts owed to the company so it can maintain efficient operations at its 300 MW coal-fired power plant.

MCL has stated that it has not been able to keep up a robust maintenance programme at its thermal power plant – which has been contributing significantly to the energy balance of the country due to a continued shortfall in monthly payments of its power bills by ZESCO, which is the state owned entity that has the mandate to transmit and distribute power throughout Zambia.

Maamba Collieries has however not disclosed the amount of funds owed, but has explained that the payment shortfall has left it with inadequate cash for conduct of operations, loan repayments and maintenance activities.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Rear Admiral Shankar has stated that the cash flow shortage has resulted in the company being unable to sustain quality proactive maintenance to the 300MW facility, and the recent forced shutdown of one of its two generation units, halving its power supplied to the national grid to 130MW.

“Maamba Collieries makes a significant contribution to the national grid, and provides a vital diversification from the reliance on hydropower that has proved so vulnerable to climate change. We stand ready, willing and able to supply significant base load power to the nation,” he said.

According to the information availed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT on October 30, 2019 by MCL Public Relations consultant Gillian Langmead, Shankar said the company has insufficient funds to pay for costly spare parts and maintenance as the project dues to the company’s principals equipment that it depends on, which he said is not a desirable situation in these times of energy crisis that the country is facing.

Meanwhile, the company has confirmed that one of its two units was forced to shut down on October 17, 2019 owing to technical fault and requires extensive attention from the equipment supplier.
Shankar further said the power plant requires intensive regular maintenance involving high expenditure for spares, support services from the equipment manufacturers and other maintenance activities adding that since the commencement of power supply in August 2016, there has been a continuous shortfall in monthly payments received from ZESCO against Maamba Collieries’ power bills.

The delayed repairs of the thermal power plant earlier during the day forced ZESCO to announce an extended 15 hour  load shedding schedule across the country.

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Zambia's largest independent power producer Maamba Collieries

Lifestyle

The Ministry of Local Government has refuted allegations that the continued delay in the payment of salaries for Local Authorities’ employees is largely caused by late and untimely release of the Local Government Equalization Fund – LGEF.

Minister of Local Government Charles Banda has explained that the delayed payment of salaries by Local council Employees should not be attributed to the delayed disbursement of LGEF as it is a failure to raise local revenues.

Speaking on October 23, 2019 to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Banda said the Local Authorities are expected to raise revenues and funds from levies, fees, charges, local taxes, permits among other revenues pursuant to the local authority Act as the LGEF is a supplementary fund.

He said the LGEF Act provides that local authorities shall use 20% of the fund to finance capital expenditure hence the implications that local authorities are not expected to solely depend on the LGEF to finance functions and salaries.

Banda added that government has consistently disbursed funds to all 116 local authorities from January to August 2019 worth K776, 374, 408. “Government has also put in place a mechanism that prioritizes disbursement to the identified 68 vulnerable local authorities that mainly depend on the grant to implement local authorities’ functions,” he said.

The minister has since stated that there is no need for local authorities to go on a go-slow as it disrupts service provision and industrial harmony. He has since directed all principal officers to submit reports to the ministry of local government on all employees participating in the go-slow in their respective local authorities.

Local Authorities seem to have become dependent on central government funding, when you look at the councils in major cities and towns across Zambia, you will find for instance unregistered taxis, town centre and city parking fees being collected by non council youths and a lot of business levies being issued and funds paid unaccounted for leading to massive revenue leakages.

Moreover, the councils have not been able to find solutions to collecting land and property rates due to political interference. The local government function in Zambia suffers from a historical centralization of key economic functions which seem to have led to a dependency on central government.

Some of the key revenue driver base such as council houses were sold off to sitting Tennant’s and councils have not been recapitalized after this huge sell out of their revenue earning asset base. There is need for capital injection into the local authorities to enable their revenue earning potential to be realized.

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The Ministry of Local Government has refuted

Lifestyle

The Law Association of Zambia- LAZ has attributed the low pass rate of University graduates to the fact that Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education – ZIALE trains students into practicing lawyers unlike universities and colleges that focus mainly on the academic part.

ZIALE is the sole institution responsible for training law students into practicing lawyers has continued to record a low pass rate at bar exams, which has caused concern on Zambias ability to provide adequate manpower for the smooth operation of the civil and criminal justice system across all the ten provinces of Zambia.

LAZ president Eddie Mwitwa in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT stated that “the students themselves lack academic commitment because they have other works to do and most of them have only given school part-time, which is also contributing a to low pass rate”. He further commended women students saying that “women mostly take up the lead in scoring high marks due to their commitment”.

Meanwhile, Kabwe central lawmaker Tutwa Ngulube has since called on ZIALE and LAZ to call for a stakeholder’s meeting and discuss the dismal performance of students to find a lasting solution to the poor results. He added that the ZIALE should reduce on the number of students enrolled in order to have a good student to lecturer ratio and interaction.

Ngulube said that having too many students in one class may compromise service delivery. He was however quick to mention that most students coming out of Universities are allegedly half baked He further noted that some students who graduate from some of the Universities fail to draft even a simple legal letter, when they go on attachment at his law firm, a situation he described as disheartening.

This year ZIALE has recorded another low pass rate of only 5 students out of 355 students who sat the 2019 final exams. Only 5 made the grade to be admitted to the Bar, representing 1.4% pass rate. ZIALE has since been called upon to review its curriculum and improve on transparency. South Africa had similar problems in the past but after some reforms, the situation is now tenable and Zambia can take a lead from there.

However, ZIALE has defended themselves saying that there was nothing wrong with their bar examinations except that students needed to work hard to make the grade. They have stated that their training is for practice as opposed to the academic training.

Calls for reform to enable justice for both the elite and ordinary citizens have grown. The set up of local, magistrate and high courts across the country received a boost with construction and expansion of these facilities across all the ten provinces of Zambia. But access to lawyers and legal aid to enable a fair and equitable civil and criminal justice system remains largely for a few elites with the concentration of lawyers at 87% in Lusaka alone according to a research report by GRMI in 2019.

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The Law Association of Zambia- LAZ has

Markets

The impact of power rationing or load shedding in now manifesting in different economic areas with the latest being the impact on prices of dry foods. Prices of dry foods on the local market such as dry Fish and Kapenta have been hiked by about 25% from the previous months prices raising inflation concerns. Some traders talked to at City and Soweto markets in Lusaka city have confirmed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in some spot interviews.

The retailers attributed the increase in the prices of the above named dry food products due to price increases at the source markets and the prices being quoted by local transporter and traders, whom they have claimed are taking advantage of increased demand of dry foods due to load shedding.

Traders have lamented that a 50Kilogramms of dry Kapenta is now being supplied at K2,100 from the previous K1,600, hence they have increased their prices by K20 and K30 to cover for their costs and cater for some profit margins.

“We have increased our prices because fishing from Siavonga was low and is now closed, we are not sure if it’s the annual fishing ban or just the low water levels creating a fish deficit”, said one trader. Others have attributed the hike to the recent upward adjustments in the fuel pump prices which has also lead to an increase in the transportation cost of goods and services.

Some traders stated that the hiking of prices of dry foods on the market is because there has been increased demand in the dry food products due to the increased load shedding hours. People are unable to store food in refrigerators, so this has driven up demand which the traders are cashing in from.

A check done by a ZBT analyst confirmed that the increased hours of load shedding has pushed most consumers to prefer buying dry foods compared to fresh foods  for fear of having fresh foods such as meat and other products which need refrigeration from going to waste as load shedding schedules are now not being adhered to in most parts of the country.

Both the agriculture and energy sectors has experience low production due to the poor rainfall pattern in the 2018/2019 rainy season resulting in low water levels in key hydro power plants that includes the Kariba which generates power for the country, resulting in massive power rationing.

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The impact of power rationing or load

Lifestyle

Private enterprise Program – PeP Coordinator Brain Ross has revealed that exports of handicrafts from developing economies in the world grew by 53% from 2002 to 2010 adding that developing economies have dominated the sector with handcrafts counting for 65% of the total world exports in the handicraft sector.

Speaking during a presentation at the consultative workshop on Art and Crafts in Zambia organized by the Private enterprise Programme – PeP on October 22, 2019 attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Ross said several converging trends indicate that demand in the artisan sector will continue to expand including consumer and company interest in sourcing locally produced artisan goods.

At the same event Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry Director of Foreign Trade Lillian Bwalya said there is need to develop road maps that will identify various intervals of the trade and encourage the development of art and crafts sector towards creating sustainable jobs for Zambians.

She said the market for Zambian handicraft has witnessed moderate growth due to increased interests in consumption  of local cultural products among others but that despite having unique arts and crafts which are produced in the rural areas, the opportunities for exports and scaling up production has not fully been exploited.

“Zambia’s exports of handicrafts remain small due to ever changing global trends and stiff competition. The global community is constantly looking for unique art on the market hence the market has not been fully exploited due to product quality issues and the inability to scale up production,” She said. The Director has since called on the private sector’s active participation in the export market if growth is to be captured.

And Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research – ZIPAR has called on the urgent need to invest is data collection for evidence-based decision making to definitively gauge the developments in the creative industries such as the arts and crafts in particular.

ZIPAR Researcher Shebo Nalishebo has stated that the sector needs to embrace innovations in ICT’s to able to, among other things use computer –aided designs for the arts and crafts. Nalishebo said there is also need to build art, crafts and antiques online platforms to enable sellers sell their products online to capture the overseas market.

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Private enterprise Program - PeP Coordinator Brain

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Consumer Unity for Trust Society – CUTS has called on the power utility company, ZESCO to share its progress regarding the importation of electricity and identify a short-term solution to Zambia’s energy crisis.

CUTS has observed that many consumers, both residential and businesses have been struggling with the current load shedding hours adding that not only are consumers being burdened with extended periods of load shedding, but ZESCO is sometimes unable to keep to their load shedding schedules hence exacerbating the crisis.

Around mid October, ZESCO in a press statement released on 17 October indicated that load shedding was to increase for a period of 12 days country-wide due to the taking out of service of one generating unit at Maamba Collieries Limited Power Station due to a fault that developed on 15 October hence to mitigate the shortfall during the shutdown period, additional load management of up to three hours was implemented.

CUTS Coordinator Chenai Mukumba told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the national power utility company ZESCO, should share its discussions on the importation of power to clear speculations that have risen from various stakeholders regarding the progress of the discussions with Eskom.

She said lack of clarity is causing uncertainty to the country’s business environment and is contributing to a lack of confidence on the part of the general population. “As these discussions take place, we wish to reiterate that the Energy Regulation Board – ERB needs to be as transparent and consultative as possible, particularly during discussions pertaining to the tariff hikes that may need to accompany the importation of electricity. Indeed, if the tariff hikes are too high and there is no change in the service provision, the hikes may be beyond the reach of those who need to use electricity.,” She said.

And ZESCO spokesperson Henry Kapata told ZBT in a telephone interview that the process of power importation is still going and will inform the public as soon as the process comes to a conclusion.
Zambia is currently facing an on-grid power deficit of over 750 MW due to low water levels at Kariba dam which is the key generator of electricity for the copper rich country.

Zambia is however in the process of importing 300MW from South Africa, a proposition which also came under question when ESKOM announced its own round of load shedding last week.

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Consumer Unity for Trust Society – CUTS

Lifestyle

Kanyama residents of Lusaka have been reported to have damaged one of the fire trucks after the fire brigade team rushed to the area on a reported fire incident that occurred on October 20, 2019 around 22:00 hrs.

The fire brigade received a call from a concerned resident that one of the houses around Kanyama’s Shula area was on fire and in the process of quenching the fire, residents turned violent and began to damage the fire truck with some glass windows left shattered.

Lusaka City Council – LCC told ZBT that its saddened by the damage of one of its fire trucks by some residents in Kanyama stating that the hostility being exhibited towards Council officials on flimsy grounds during their conduct of duty is not healthy.

LCC Public Relations Manager George Sichimba has confirmed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the fire truck and a team of fire fighters was immediately dispatched to the scene, but upon arrival it was discovered that what was on fire was the Zesco transformer and not the house.

Sichimba said the team managed to quench the fire but no sooner than they did that residents who came to witness the incident started pelting stones at the officers and equipment demanding that fire fighters should restore electricity supply in the area and accused them of contributing to the Zesco load shedding in the area.

“The incident resulted in the wind screen of the cabin crew of the fire truck being shattered and three fire fighters sustaining injuries. The team, however, managed to flee from the scene with the help of state police. Kanyama residents know very well that it is not within the mandate of the fire brigade to restore supply of electricity neither do they have anything to do with load shedding,” he said.

He has since reminded residents that the mandate of the fire brigade is to save lives and property from fire and fire related incidences wherever and whenever duty calls and the Authority is therefore appealing to all Lusaka residents to refrain from acts of violence and destruction towards Council officials and property.He added that residents should instead work with the Council to safeguard Council properties for public good.

Some LCC sympathizers based in Kanyama stated that the area is considered a stronghold for the opposition and this incident is politically motivated and meant to embarrass the government and its local authorities.

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Kanyama residents of Lusaka have been reported

Agribusiness

Self-sponsored tobacco farmers (farmers not enrolled on an out-grower scheme) in Zambia have bemoaned the lack support to access tobacco markets in the industry as priority is only given to those on sponsorship schemes.

A tobacco grower from Vubwi district of Eastern Province, Chishala Chilufya told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that many self-sponsored farmers are challenged when it comes to accessing the tobacco market as buyers prioritize to source only from farmers on sponsorship schemes hence creating economic slavery.

Chilufya added that the current state of affairs has further led to buyers fixing lower local prices of tobacco without  considering the cost of production, hence pushing self-sponsored farmers to having their tobacco sold at a lower prices due to desperation.

He told ZBT that the tobacco industry has been captured by a few firms which have frozen out independent or self sponsored farmers. This has led to the sponsored or scheme farmers being trapped in a perpetual borrowing cycle and are kept in scheme out of  fear to continue having their produce bought under the sponsor’s scheme.

Chilufya stated that sponsors have concentrated on making their own profit and neglect improving the local farmers wellbeing despite farmers having the capability to increase produce and output if well supported.

He added that only white commercial farmers are given the opportunity to independently grow the crop with an already provided market while majority local farmers struggle to find a market if not captured on the buyer’s program. He has since called on government through the Ministry of Agriculture to revisit the industry and address the issue of pricing especially for self- sponsored farmers who end up being exploited.

He has noted the need for the Zambian government to fully involve itself in the tobacco industry stating that more responsibility has been left to the Tobacco Board of Zambia – TBZ who are also struggling to gain some level of control over how to run the industry without government’s support.

“Tobacco is a high value crop which can also compete with copper, sometimes it can even beat the price of copper per tonne and it can go up to $7,000 per tonne hence the need to critically pay attention to this industry because it has potential to greatly contribute to the growth of the economy,” he said.

Chilufya further said China is the biggest tobacco buyer and that the country should take advantage of its good bilateral ties with the people’s republic of China to link local farmers to a bigger market if the industry is to grow.

The Vubwi based tobacco farmer said that Zambia should emulate countries like Zimbabwe which has strongly supported its national tobacco industry, stating that it is producing 350 million Kilograms of tobacco per annum while Zambia is producing close to 30 Million Kilograms per annum, an indication that Zambia can do more.

Chilufya who is into growing irrigated tobacco owns 530 hectares of land with 30 hectares of tobacco already grown for the 2019/2020 season and has anticipated to produce 90 tonnes from the 2019/2020 marketing season compared to 25 tonnes produced in 2018/2019 session as he only grew 10 hectares of tobacco.

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Self-sponsored tobacco farmers (farmers not enrolled on

Agribusiness

The Bankers Association of Zambia – BAZ has confirmed that the banking industry has K5.6 billion (US$43 million) of assets allocated towards the agriculture sector with 17.2% of the total loan book in the commercial banking industry sitting with the Agro sector.

Speaking at the official opening of the 2019 National Symposium on Agriculture organized by the Center for Trade Policy and Development – CTPD attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, BAZ Chief Executive Officer Leonard Mwanza said the banking sector has provided platforms which bring together farmers, Agro traders, other private sector players and government that can help the Agro industry come up with sustainable and effective solutions that address challenges farmers are facing to produce at full capacity.

He said the banking sector is interested in ensuring that structural issues and export policies for small and medium scale farmers are taken into account when thrashing out regional integration into the Common market for Eastern and Southern Africa – COMESA and the Southern African Development Community – SADC regions.

“The financial service sector is already a step ahead, we have integrated the payment systems under SADC that will enable the movement of money from and to Zambia and any SADC country, we will soon be launching after piloting, a programme that will enable farmers move funds by use of mobile phones to pay for goods and services across the border,” he said.

Mwanza noted that the sector has had challenges with farmers that do not give a complete story of their Agro businesses and lifestyle, making it difficult for lending institutions to support them financially. He added that the sector with the help of the central bank is working to improve on gender based support by dis-aggregating data statistics that will showcase the number of customers segregated into youths, women and men.

At the same event CTPD Executive Director Isaac Mwaipopo said the symposium will help increase financial inclusion for farmers and address financial hiccups that farmers face in the agricultural sector. Agriculture finance especially for local and emerging farmers has been difficult to model with limited success rate of farmers graduation from small to emerging and finally commercial farmers status.

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The Bankers Association of Zambia – BAZ