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Mining

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection – JCTR has urged government to reinstate the mining revenue sharing mechanism in form of Local Authority Development fund for the benefit of the local authorities and ultimately the communities hosting the mining firms.

JCTR Programmes Officer Innocent Ndashe has told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an interview that it is only rational for the country to develop a dedicated mechanism to make use of mining revenues from finite resources, considering they form part of the nation’s subsoil capital wealth.

The Centre’s concern is in response to the mechanism’s absence in the 2020 budget and a statement issued in parliament by Minister of Finance Dr. Bwalya Ngandu, where he stated that the Mineral Revenue Sharing Mechanism will not be included in the 2020 budget as aspects of sharing revenue with mine host communities form part of the Local Government Equalization Fund.

Ndashe has since explained that it is worth noting that the Local Government Equalization Fund does not take into consideration parameters of loss of livelihood and environmental degradation in allocating resources to local authorities.

“We demand for the reinstatement of the Mineral Revenue Sharing Mechanism, as we believe that its relevant in safeguarding the livelihoods and mitigating impacts of environmental degradation in mine host communities,” he said.

Ndashe further said that there is need to ensure that, in the absence of the Mineral Revenue Sharing Mechanism, local authorities hosting mining activities are allocated a reasonable potion of their budget towards community development and environmental related programs to mitigate the effects of mining.

The Minister of Finance is however expected to amend proposed 2020 budget by including strategies for investing windfall earnings and mineral rent into sovereign wealth funds including economic stabilization funds.

A desktop research done by ZBT indicates that mine host communities from known areas like Kalumbila district in Northwestern Province and some parts of the Copperbelt province have been raising concerns of not benefiting from the mining activities in the areas despite investors encroaching part of their land which has originally been used for agriculture and other natural economic uses.

It is expected that investors that plan to invest in communities around the country consider developing the areas by way of creating job opportunities for the labor. The corporate social responsibility that is currently availed is welcome but should be done within agreed parameters with the affected communities.

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The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection –

Companies

Zambia hosted the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – EXIM Bank Regional Conclave on India-Southern Africa Project Partnership which ran from October 14 to 15, 2019 in Lusaka, marking a strengthening of ties between the two countries.

Over 30 leading companies in India travelled to Zambia with the aim of investing in Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Power and Energy, Information Technology, Agriculture and Manufacturing sector among others.

President Lungu was at hand to officiate the Conclave and urged investors to invest in Zambia’s key priority areas that he earlier emphasized to them when he visited India from August 20 to 21, 2019. He said the Zambian Government has invested heavily in infrastructure, which was an enabler to any development.

The event attracted the attendance of delegates from Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Seychelles, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia among other SADC member states.

Top Government officials, members of the local Indian business community and other business players in Zambia also attended the event. The key partners of the Regional Conclave included the the Government of Zambia, EXIM Bank of India, COMESA Business Council (CBC), Government of India, SADC and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

In addition, Commerce, Trade and Industry minister, Christopher Yaluma said the Conclave will provide the country with the opportunity to consolidate the bilateral economic ties with India and facilitate the growth of business linkages. The minister assured the Conclave that Zambia is a peaceful country in which investors can freely interact and look for business opportunities of interest.

Speaking at the same event, Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) president Chabuka Kawesha stated that the Conclave on Zambia and the larger Southern Africa and India will serve as a robust platform for dialogues between India and the SADC member countries. He added that the event will also focus on economic and commercial deliberations through Business to Government (B2G) and Business to Business (B2B) engagements.

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Zambia hosted the Confederation of Indian Industry

Markets

Lusaka based business consultant and economist Chibamba Kanyama has stated that Zambia’s multinational companies are hesitant to list on the Lusaka Securities Exchange – LuSE because the country’s Gross Domestic Product – GDP growth rate is low and cannot realize the total capitalization that companies have put in.

Kanyama told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that Zambia’s market is not deep enough to realize the multinational company’s profits on the stock exchange as it seems to only attract 2% out of the total capitalization hence not sufficient.

Zambia’s current state of the economy is one facing serious headwinds on account of adverse weather conditions which have affected the energy and agricultural sector. Earlier the country projected the growth rate for 2019 at around 4% but has been revised downwards to about 2% which is 50% cut.

In 2018 the country’s GDP grew by 3.8 % compared to 3.4% in 2017 indicating a huge drop to this year’s projected growth rate of 2%. Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Dr. Bwalya Ngandu had during the budget presentation announced that among the macro-economic targets for 2020, Zambia aims to achieve a real GDP growth rate of at least 3% for 2020.

According to the Trading Economics Global Macro Models and Analysts, Zambia’s GDP is expected to be US$30.8 billion by end of this fourth year’s fourth quarter while is it expected to trend around US$34 billion in 2020.

Kanyama further told ZBT that the country’s desire to have almost all multinational companies list on the Lusaka’s Securities Exchange to enhance transparency and drive local Zambians participation and ownership will be difficult to achieve  as the country is not generating enough growth hence leading to a high listing cost.

“GDP refers to the amount of money that the country generates and determines how much is available in investments of funds and what households and companies have. Therefore, without growth, it is difficult for a company to realize profit within the country hence decide to diversify their investments to other countries,” said Chibamba Kanyama.

Some economic and financial experts have indicated that Zambia’s accumulation of high debt levels have led to a deceleration in growth of the country’s economy and provision of social services. The rise in foreign denominated public debt over the years has raised concerns among the general public and other stakeholders in Zambia as its payment causes a reduction in national foreign exchange reserves hence starving the growth of the economy and causing instability of the local currency, the Kwacha.

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Lusaka based business consultant and economist Chibamba

Agribusiness

National Milling Corporation, a local unit of the United States based Seaboard Corporation, with a history dating back more than 90 years had invested in a new plant meant to grow its Zambian Business.

Commissioning the modern US$ 37.5 million National Milling plant in Lilayi on 11 October 2019, Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu stated that ‘‘this investment by National Milling and indeed other investments across the country are a clear indication that the private sector is responding positively to the conducive business environment in the country’’.

The Zambian leader reaffirmed government’s commitment to curb the power deficit, which is negatively affecting agricultural production. He further stated that ‘‘wheat being an irrigated crop, our farmers are faced with a number of challenges to grow it. One notable challenge is the current power deficit which is affecting wheat yields and profitability’’, president Lungu said.

He added that the plant, which has a production capacity of four million metric tonnes will first start milling 600 metric tonnes of Wheat per day and later begin the processing of Maize after 12 months. Wheat and maize contribute significantly to national food security, president Lungu said.

He therefore, urged local farmers to grow more wheat to meet the market demand, but cautioned against abandoning Cassava farming, which is easy to grow and is drought – resistant in the wake of climate change effects. The president said Cassava has many industrial uses and is the second largest food crop, which can support Government’s strategy to uplift the welfare of small- scale farmers.

Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo expressed gratitude and thanked government for standing with the farming community in the midst of climate change devastating effects. NMC managing director David Bosse said the new milling plant took about five years to be completed.

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National Milling Corporation, a local unit of

Lifestyle

Street vending has formally resumed in Lusaka city, allowing venders to sell their merchandise along Lumumba road, from 18 hours to 20 hours as directed by the ministry of local government.

The move by the local government ministry to designate only Lumumba road has been received with mixed feelings by vendors who have since cried out to government to designate another street on which they can trade from, amidst economic austerity and a huge number of informal traders.

A check conducted by the Zambian Business Times –ZBT through the streets of Lusaka’s Lumumba road found hundreds of vendors doing business on the street. One trader who deals in shoes said Lumumba road cannot cater for all the vendors.

‘‘It is a good thing that government has allowed vending back on the streets but we are too many traders, what happens to others who can not find space?. The markets are also full and some have no business. There are no jobs and we have the climate change effects which is impacting so negatively on the country’s economy, so if vendors and informal petty traders are given alternative trading spaces, many economic challenges we are facing can be reduced’’.

The vendor representative pointed out that climate change has affected the energy and agriculture sectors causing a rise in the price of goods and services, saying if government opens up several trading areas, it can help alleviate the sufferings of the local people, as they will have a place on which to sell their goods instead of engaging in illicit activities to generate the much needed incomes.

But Independent ward 14 councilor George Daka, appealed to vendors trading illegally on undesignated streets to return to Lumumba road. And local government permanent Secretary Eddie Chomba called for engagement of the traders selling on undesignated streets.

Street vending was banned last year by government when the country underwent an acute cholera out break that posed a health risk to goods and especially foods sold on the streets. The streets also do not have social and public health facilities such as public washrooms. This left hundreds of traders helpless thereby causing an economic breaking down in mostly high density residential areas were the majority of the informal and street petty traders reside.

Traders have since appealed to government to quickly provide additional convenient trading sites for them so that the economic hardships can reduce. Most traders have complained that they are experiencing low sales and this is putting pressure on household incomes.

The ministry of local government which is mandated to attend to community needs has consistently failed to implement revenue generating activities to boost their ability to attend to public and community needs. This is one ministry that needs strong leadership as it affects the livelihood of the majority of the citizens by being the responsible ministry for regulation public transport, markets and local employment creation.

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Street vending has formally resumed in Lusaka

Markets

Financial inclusion in Zambia remains relatively low at 59.3% (about 60%), with the government calling on financial providers to collaborate with key stakeholders in its quest to increase financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is considered key to economic productivity of the population.

Permanent Secretary in the ministry of finance (Economic Management) Mukuli Chikuba says to attain significant financial inclusivity in the years to come, financial service providers must invest in financial technologies which will facilitate access for the excluded population to Digital platform.

‘‘Digitalization is already the future of financing, therefore, the advancement and adoption of technology and digitalized business models will enable financial service providers to achieve greater scale, reduce operating costs, penetrate new markets more swiftly and better understand the needs of customers’’. the PS said.

Chikuba added that digital financial services should be suited to customers’ needs and delivered appropriately, at an affordable cost to customers and service providers. The PS was speaking at the 5th Banking and Finance Conference held from 9th to 10th October 2019, under the theme; Financial Inclusion in an Era of Digital Disruptions- Enhancing Sector Transformation attended by Zambian Business Times – ZBT in Lusaka.

‘‘I wish to reiterate that the theme for the conference is appropriate as it is in line with government’s agenda of increasing overall financial inclusion to 80% by 2022’’, said Chikuba. Chikuba further reminded financial institutions to pass on the benefits that come with digitalization to the consumers of financial services as well.

And Zambia Institute Banking and Financial Services – ZIBFS President Moses Shuko says the conference provides a good platform on which stakeholders can network and learn on topics affecting the local and global financial sectors. He says as Zambia aspire to become a middle income country by 2030, this can only be achieved if the financial system becomes more inclusive so as to promote a broad based financial intermediate platform which will foster economic development.

‘‘The 2019 conference will not only create awareness of the major challenges in developing or strengthening digital financial markets, but will also focus on solutions and resolutions of these challenges by highlighting innovations, new ideas and global experiences in the sector’’, said Shuko.

Meanwhile speaking at the same event, Bankers Association of Zambia chairman Kola Adeleke added that the convergence of technology and financial services is key to completion the vision of financial inclusions. He stated that while tradition banking of financial institutions continue catering to wide distribution network across the country, the dynamics are changing rapidly.

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Financial inclusion in Zambia remains relatively low

Companies

The latest Africa’s Pulse report presented by the World Bank Group for the year 2019 has indicated that in order to eradicate poverty and archive sustainable economic growth in Africa, the equal contributions of Women and Men is crucial.

According to the World Bank’s 20th edition of Africa’s pulse, the Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic performance has remained sluggish due to persistent uncertainty in the global economy and the slow pace of reforms to enhance domestic resilience.

Women empowerment is a programme that African countries have been advocating for as it a pursuit of national development. Zambia has in the same line vowed to invest in women economic empowerment through facilitation of access to and control of land and other resources and enhance credit to small and medium size businesses.

Experts in gender analysis issues have stipulated that despite Zambian women being offered empowerment schemes, there is less effort in facilitating skill development and capacity building. With Zambia signing up to the African Continental Free Trade Area – AfCFTA, Financial experts have indicated that despite the agreement being beneficial to Zambian traders and entrepreneurs, less engagements have been made with SME’s to ensure they are adequately equipped with what they agreement offers or what will need to be offered.

The 20th edition World bank Report presented by Chief Economist for Africa Albert Zeufack further indicates that African women contribute a large share of 40% of agriculture labor across the continent while Africa’s success story of women’s representation in the labor force is stifled by large gender disparities in earnings.

Zeufack has since stated that to seize the greatest benefits from African Women’s participation at work, policy makers must confront the constraints that women excessively face and enact policies to help them boost growth.

Women’s economic empowerment is fundamental to strengthening Women’s rights and it is a powerful way to accelerate development in a country. Investing in women is another way of accelerating poverty reduction in the country because women contribute to a large share of agriculture labor across the continent. However, the focus on work and earnings should not undermine the other dimensions of empowerment.

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The latest Africa’s Pulse report presented by

Lifestyle

Retirees from various companies which were erstwhile managed under the local authorities across the country have protested to the Local Authority Superannuation Fund – LASF over delayed pension payments by the Authority. This follows Minister of Local Government Charles Banda announcement about two weeks ago that the Ministry of Finance had released K251 million to be disbursed to over 3,600 retirees across the counrty.

Among those who gathered at LASF on October 8 2019, include retirees from Councils, ZESCO and Water Resource Companies across Zambia which had pension contributions going to LASF. Retirees have charged that despite government releasing K251 million to be disbursed, none of them have received their payments, which they said is against the agreement that the Authority had earlier made after the release of the funds.

A retiree from Lusaka City Council talked to by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT but asked for his name to be with held for fear of victimization accused the authority of deliberately delaying the disbursement and wanting to accrue bank interests from the retiree’s pension monies so that they make some extra income, at the expense of the retirees, some of whom have been waiting from 2012 (about 8 years).

“We had agreed that LASF will start paying at least 30 of us per day but what we are now seeing is them rescheduling our day of payments where others have been told to collect next year in January and April, we were called that money is already in and that the process of collecting commences now, so what is causing the delays could be because they want to get some profits from our money, all we want is our money” he said.

However, James Chipulu, a representative from the retirees group has defended LASF over the matter stating that the authority is following the First-in-First-Out system which inquires that retires collect their money according the period they retired in. He added that individuals that retired as early as 2012 will be the first to collect their money while those that retired later say 2018 will be last to receive hence following that order.

And LASF Public Relations Manager, Chishimba Milonga told ZBT in a separate interview that the authority has commenced payment of pension dues following the Fist-in-First- Out system and has projected to finish the process of payment by March 2020.

Milonga further disclosed that while the authority is on course with the pension payments, it is having challenges in processing payments due to missing documentation in some files. He added that the authority requires that its members provide correct documents to ensure that money is paid to the correct beneficiaries and not paid elsewhere, adding that this helps to avoid fraudulent activities.

The ministry of finance and the government has had a perpetual problem of not remitting monthly contributions to pension funds thereby creating this problem, if the ministry of finance released funds monthly, this problem would not arise in the first place and former government employees would not be subjected to this ill-treatment after saving the country for years.

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Retirees from various companies which were erstwhile managed

Markets

Barclays Bank, a member of the Absa group Managing Director Mizinga Melu has hailed the initiative of Kongola loan service that the Bank offers through a partnership with MTN Mobile money saying a number of small businesses have been able to find capital through accessing the service of Kongola.

Melu stated that the Kongola service has been designed in a way that is very convenient to every MTN subscriber requiring no security and collateral and that the loan goes up to K4,000. “So Kongola is quite interesting because if you’ve got your phone you can simply dial *303# and it will ask you how much you need to borrow, and the thing about Kongola is that it doesn’t ask you for security and the turnaround is very quick and you can actually get money just like that’’. Melu said.

She added that through the partnership between Barclays Bank and MTN mobile network provider and JUMO a Fintech from cape town, they have been able to provide about K1.8 million to customers who have access to the MTN mobile money service.

She further stated that it is interesting to note that over 50% of borrowers are women which is a plus in the fight for gender parity in finance.  “It goes without saying that poverty alleviation will be difficult if women are not well represented in the financial sector and when I talk about financial sector, am not talking about leaders in financial sectors alone, but am talking about also in terms of our clients and how do we provide economic development in those sectors’’, she said.

The Barclays MD said this during her presentation at the 5th Banking and Finance Conference attended by the Zambian Business Times- ZBT in Lusaka. She commended the Village banking initiative locally known as Chilimba for providing the access to capital investment among the Small Scale Entrepreneurs.

She added that without capital it is very difficult to start business, “the Village banking concept in Zambia is encouraging group saving and there’s a lot of money that is actually within the Village banking system, known as Chilimba, so it great that the central bank has supported this and it is something that promotes women to actually save informally.

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Barclays Bank, a member of the Absa

Agribusiness

Local farmers have struggled to break into the lucrative US$10 million barley ready market provided by Zambia’s largest brewer and AB InBev owned Zambian Breweries – ZB, due to among other reasons the heavy capital investment and technical know how needed to successfully grow the grain.

Production of barley in Zambia has become an economically viable activity following Zambian Breweries setting up Malting Plant commissioned in March 2017. ZB confirmed that they have increased production of Malt owing to the high quality barley being grown locally. Malt production increased from 7,075 metric tons (MT) in 2017 to 14,158MT in 2018. The brewers latest estimate for 2019 is that we will close the year at approx. 16,000MT.

Responding to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT query following reports that Zambian Breweries – ZB has sidelined and failed to engaged local Zambian farmers to become major suppliers of barley grain used in the malting process of the brewing production chain, ZB said that “ Zambian Breweries is open for business with any local farmer who has the capacity to produce good quality barley”

She further stated that “ ZB interacts with the smallholders [farmers] under two co-operative groups.  These are Chanyanya and Kaleya.  Due to the high cost of irrigation investment required to be able to produce barley there are very few opportunities for a smallholder to produce barley unless they can formalise a business or cooperative”.

ZB further stated that “for a smallholder [mostly local farmers], the return on investment is better aligned farming perishable cropping like tomatoes etc.  We view our opportunities for the smallholders are aligned with cassava production and sorghum.  These two programmes are totally aligned with emerging farmers and thus our focus is at programs that support these farmers”.

ZB further elaborated that “barley in Zambia is complex to farm. This is primarily because barley is a winter crop grown under strict irrigation specifications. This means that to sustain the growing of barley, a substantial amount of investment must be made into the irrigation infrastructure. Not many small-scale farmers can commit to an investment of that magnitude. Zambian Breweries want more [local] farmers to come through to increase the yields on the crop as demand for the crop is expected to increase over the coming years.

Zambian breweries further confirmed that currently, only 35 barley farmers have been contracted. They stated that the number for barley farmers include out grower schemes farmers operating through cooperatives. In 2017 ZB had contracted about 27 local barley farmers creating up to 4,000 direct jobs from Mkushi to Kalomo.

When asked what process and criteria is applied when selecting barley farmers and how can local Zambian farmers could hope to join the list of selected? the brewer stated that “we are open to do business with any local farmers who have the capacity to grow, offer employment and produce good quality barley to enable us to produce the finest malt to produce our premium local beers”.

However, ZB further clarified that “there is a big difference between the ordinary barley and barley used to create malt, malting barley.  Malt(ing) Barley has a very specific quality that influences all the processing from grain to beer.  Thus the need to ensure our farmer has the correct ability to grow the crop to the standard that we requireas Zambian Breweries”.

They stated that “there is a common sentiment heard amongst farmers that want to explore malting barley production is “I’ve grown small grains for years; it can’t be that different. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Although experience in growing small grains such as wheat, oats or feed barley is beneficial, barley grown for malt is managed differently”.

ZB further  stated that “managing the crude protein levels in barley is important and one of the biggest challenges for farmers who are familiar with growing grain for livestock where a high crude protein is optimal. To produce quality malt, it is preferred that protein is at or below 12 percent. For this reason, fertiliser, primarily nitrogen, must be closely managed to avoid over-application. The quality of the crop is very important to Zambian Breweries as it helps make quality malt efficiently to brew the finest beers of global standards”.

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Local farmers have struggled to break into