Thu, 22 Feb 2018 10:24:25 +0000
By KALOBWE BWALYA
IT is rewarding to invest in Zambia’s agricultural sector because of attractive business incentives, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Chief Executive Officer, Perry Mapani has said.
The ZDA CEO made the remarks in Lusaka yesterday when Zambia’s High Commissioner to India, Judith Kapijimpanga and Prasad Seeds Company General Manager for Africa, Sreekumar Nair, whose firm has expressed interest to set-up a multi-million dollar seed processing facility in Zambia, called on him at his office.
Mr Mapani said investors in the sector enjoyed incentives among which was the duty free on imports of agriculture equipment adding that corporate tax stood at 10 percent as opposed to 35 percent in other sectors.
Mr Mapani said agriculture was a priority in Zambia as outlined in the 7th National Development Plan (7NDP) which encourages diversification of the economy from copper dependency to agriculture.
“An investor in the sector is allowed to import agriculture equipment duty free adding that corporate tax is only 10% as opposed to 35% in other sectors and Agriculture is a priority sector in Zambia as outlined in the SNDP which looks at diversification of the economy from copper dependency of which agriculture is key, hence ZDA also runs with the investor in registration, legal requirements and land acquisition among others to ease their challenges,” said Mr Mapani.
And Prasad Seeds Company general manager for Africa Sreekumar Nair said the instruction by Prasad was to register a company in Zambia as soon as possible. Mr Nair said his company is reputable as it has 32 factories in India sitting on a one million square feet piece of built up factory space.
“Prasad Seeds provides 70% of India’s seed requirements and we will look beyond Zambia, SADC and the great lakes region for marketing our products,” said Mr Nair.
Meanwhile, Ms Kapijimpanga said Prasad Seeds Company was fully equipped with its own captive energy to supplement the power from the main grid.
Ms Kapijimpanga said the idea by the Ministry of Defence to partner with Prasad Seeds could go a long way in the country’s food security if paddy rice and vegetable seeds were processed locally.
“The Ministry of Defence is interested in partnering with Prasad Seeds Company in promoting food security in Zambia.
“Prasad Seeds Company has an out grower scheme which empowers women and youths through giving them seeds to plant and later buys off the produce for seed processing,” said Ms Kapijimpanga.
