Zambia loses out on becoming Africa largest Manganese mine producer

Although Zambia is richly endowed with a vast amount of manganese reserves it has failed to capitalise on this and reach higher levels of economic growth. This is partly due to the reason that the sector is underdeveloped because of the many challenges it continues to face.
The Luongo Manganese Mine in Chipili District of Luapula Province Worth over USD$180 million which is earmarked to be one of the biggest Manganese Mines in Africa is still not fully operational even at a time when there is increasing demand for manganese globally.
Manganese is an essential component of the steel-making process, manganese has also played an increasing role in the battery market. The metal sulphate is an important stabilizing ingredient in the cathodes of batteries widely used in electric vehicles and electronics.
Western Province Luapula province Permanent Secretary Might Mumba has confirmed that the 40 million tons Manganese mine which was commissioned by the Head of States President Hakainde Hichilema in November 2022 is still operating on a small scale level.
“The principal came through last year, the President came through to lay a foundation that was done and by then there was a bit of mining going on and even this time around they are mining but only on a small scale. The mining company Musamu resources is yet to put in place the electricity as they are currently using the gen-set and also bring in other essentials.”
Speaking when he commissioned the mine, President Hichilema said the development of Luongo Manganese Mine is a milestone as it has shown that Zambians can set up and run mines in the country.
President Hichilema assured that government will support the mine and ensure that it creates more jobs to benefit the locals.
The Head of State also pledged that suppliers and contractors will benefit from the mine as it will be adding value to the manganese to produce chemical manganese for car batteries.
According to the Association of Zambian Mineral Exploration Companies – AZMEC – The Luongo Manganese Mine in Chipili District of Luapula Province has the capacity to generate about united states dollars USD$180 000 000 (180 Million) as the project is about 40 million tons of manganese.
The mine has been developed by Musamu Resources a Zambian owned company.
Meanwhile efforts to get a comment from Musamu Resources on when the company will commence full production, proved difficulty by press time.

Although Zambia is richly endowed with a

Stanchart Bank withdraw charges increased by 40%

Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Plc – SCBZ – customers are about to get high withdraw fees from the Automated Teller Machine – ATM as the bank has resolved to increase the charges by about 40 percent quoting high cost of doing business as an excuse.

The British multinational bank has increased the withdraw charges for Automated Teller Machine – ATM – by about 40% from the current K12 to K20 per transaction.
As if this is not enough, the Bank has increased Counter check charges from k20 to k50 while saving in business banking account management fee has been raised from k150 to k200.

According to the information made available to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, by an impeccable source who asked for their names to be withheld, the bank has also increased the monthly management fee for the foreign currency account USD Dollar from $10 to $20 while over the counter withdraws within the ATM limit has been increased k200 from k100.
The bank has also introduced Priority annual membership fee of k500 on the priority customer, SMS notification charge of about K1, bill payments k10, Retirement Tax Services – RTS – of k55 and e tax to the Zambia Revenue Authority – ZRA – which was zero but now k25 has been introduced per transaction.
This has been attributed to the high cost of doing business. “Because we are also looking at the market conditions which have necessitated us to increase the charges.”
“The cost of doing business have actually increased so that is what has actually made us to revise some of our charges.” The source remarked.
Some customers however feel the increase is too much and the bank risks losing already existing potential customers who feel the charges are now too much to carry.

Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Plc – SCBZ

Current Kwacha appreciation temporal – Economist

An economist and financial expert has warned that the current appreciation of Kwacha against the United States Dollar – USD is temporal, unsustainable and may not have a long term positive impact on the ground given the country’s current economic state and weak fundamentals.

The Zambian Kwacha has as of today – Tuesday 20th June 2023 posted serious gains in value against the USD trading from about K19.23 the previous day to about K16.83. The dollar is now buying at K16.8342 and selling at K17.1658 as of Tuesday 20th June 2023 from highs of buying at K19.2306 and selling at K19.6094 respectively as of Monday 19th June 2023.

Reacting to the steep movement, a financial and economic expert has argued that, “I don’t see the Zambian economy being able to sustain it for a long time because you must also take into consideration the fact that right now, Zambia is not paying back (servicing) it’s foreign exchange denominated debt because it is on a debt suspension initiative till the restructuring is concluded and approved.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times -ZBT, Economist, Researcher and Consultant Salwindi Notulu said although the appreciation of the Zambian Kwacha against the US dollar will have an immediate impact on spot transactions like those settling payments for imported goods and services as this will reduce the Kwacha needed to be converted, the appreciation will have little to no impact on the ground in the medium term.

Notulu explained that this is because of the current balance of reserves that the country has is low, hence the level of sustainability of these gains can simply not be guaranteed.

“Basically what am saying is that if there is any fluctuations in the Supply or demand side on the market, whether they are due to internal or external happenings, those will have an impact in terms of the exchange rates, but in terms of stability in the medium to long term, I would not really be positive that we will be able to sustain it given our current economic situation. So this may just be a one off gain caused by other things happening outside or within the country.”

“From what is obtaining on the ground, I would assume it to be a temporal wind fall and not something that we can say it will continue going down or remain stable. You also need to take into consideration that prices are sticky going downwards but when its going upwards, they are very flexible.”

He added that this may be a short term windfall, so in terms of people on the ground, you can’t really say there will be any effect that will be felt unless it’s sustained over a much longer period of time.

“So this may just be a one off thing and we don’t even know for how long it will last, so only the big companies and large traders who can benefit and take advantage of this, but for ordinary people on the ground, the gains should be sustained over a longer period of time.

An economist and financial expert has warned

Zambia is self sufficient in wheat production, no deficit exists – ZNFU

Zambia is self s

The Zambia National Farmers Union – ZNFU has clarified that Zambia is self sufficient as far as wheat production is concerned and that there is no need to resort to imports. 

This revelation is however contrary to assertions in the Ministerial Statement that depicted that the country has a net production deficit of about 110,000 tons for the 2022/2023 Agro season.

Speaking in a separate exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, ZNFU Wheat chairperson Blair McLeod stated that it’s disturbing to hear that there is a deficit as the country has more water and electricity supply has improved coupled with increased hectarage under cultivation last year.

McLoed stated that last year, Wheat farmers who are members of ZNFU produced about 370,000 tons plus another 50,000 from wheat farmers who are not members of ZNFU. This adds up to a total production for the country of 420,000 tons of wheat.

ZNFU wheat chairman stated that every year, the Millers Association of Zambia – MAZ states their demand as far as the need to import is, but precious year’s show that they have imported less and less as production has been increasing, so the deficit that need to be covered by imports is definitely less and should not be anywhere above 100,000 tons.

When asked about the estimated consumption in Zambia for both domestic and industrial use, McLoed stated that though its difficult to come up an exact number, ZNFU estimates that consumption is somewhere between 300k to 350k tons, making the country a surplus wheat producer.

ZNFU further indicated that if export volumes for flour were to be accurately measured, then the country would be able to have more accurate figures on local wheat consumption.

A check by ZBT on the ZRA website revealed that no flour exports details are available and efforts are underway to get official numbers from the revenue agency. The lack of details results in Zambia being depicted as an importer of wheat, and data for the export of flour, so this distortion needs attention by policy makers.

A further check with market players by ZBT reveals that locally produced wheat is currently being rated as having the best quality, but some inferior wheat commodities are being imported with some mixed with the good quality locally produced wheat, a practice which needs to be investigated and loopholes closed to support market efficiency.

Zambia is self s The Zambia National Farmers

Increasing number of married women looking for second marriages worrying

Having enjoyed for years when men could get away with everything and settle for a second marriage whilst still married to the first wife, women are now turning the tables are they are now leaving their husbands for a second marriage.

Women, are now seeing a second marriage as a second chance for happiness as this could be seen from the recent two reported incidences at Lusaka Civic Centre, where two married women attempted to get married whilst still married on two different occasions.

Families are Nations says there is serious need for this development to be given serious attention from the law enforcement agencies because if left unattended to, families and the country at large will totally be in disarray as the children and the families will be divided. This has also the capacity to increase the number of street kids.

Organization executive director Judith Mwila told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – that the laws must be applied so that people can understand that they are committing a crime by engaging themselves in such acts and there should be strict punishments for the offenders.

Mwila said the Families are Nations have also observed with a lot of interest on this development and is questioning what is really going on in these homes where the women are coming out and wanting to get married to the second man while their husbands are there in the homes.

“Our concerns are firstly on matters of communication because it is not a normal thing and also retrogressive to the family. You can imagine people that have been married for over five years with children only for children to hear that the mother is getting married to a second man. This development is really strange and as the organisation we are trying to dig deeper and find out from the couples.”

She said from the outlook there could be something that is happening in marriages which is not conducive for the partners that want to leave and go and get married somewhere else.

“The women are possibly looking for a better relationships and they feel if they find another man they would probably get that so again it could be a misjudgement because what constitutes a better relationship, once you commit yourself to a certain man it means the man has qualified to you to give you a better relationship that’s why you chose him to marry you.”

“Families should be blamed for going this far because when there are disputes in the families there are processes to be followed and if they fail there is a church, councillors or court rather than ending up embarrassing themselves and the rest of the family members that way.”

“If a marriage has Brocken down the right thing to do is to end it first before another marriage can be contracted. So on our part we are equally shocked just like the rest of society is wondering what is going on and we would like to get into the gist of this thing to hear what is happening.”

“My advice to Married couples is that they should learn to resolve and reconcile and if they fail they can go as far as the court. We are further encouraging families to resolve things as they start because we don’t want more children on the streets because of marriages that are breaking.” She added.   

Having enjoyed for years when men could