WHEN most people see an airport, the first impression that comes to their mind is that its just a place where planes take off and land but it isn´t.
An airport is a crucial cog to the economic growth or expansion wheel of a country on more fronts than one.
An airport, especially a well-built international airport provides the following for a country like Zambia:
• A first impression of what Zambia is to tourists and businesspeople arriving, or taking off from our beautiful country
• The story of what you are going to expect while doing business or adventuring in Zambia is first written at the airport
It is for this reason that I thought as a student of economics and diplomacy, I would dig in into the high points of President Edgar Lungu´s flagging of the multi-million-dollar Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe airport to the Zambian economy.
One of the major points is that it will immediately create a “new economy” in the Copperbelt bustling with new jobs and hope for the youths and family once unemployed and hopeless.
Below are some highlights President Edgar Lungu gave during the launch of the project co funded by the Chinese Exim bank according to records in H.E Lungu´s own words:
• The airport in Ndola comes seats on 3.5-kilometre runway, taxiways
• It will accommodate up two million passengers per annum
capacity in the terminal building compared to just a few hundreds a few years ago
• It comes with an expanded a cargo terminal plus an ultra-modern air traffic control tower that increases levels of safety.
• It has a modern rescue and fire station, navigational
equipment.
• It has a commercial complex that shall accommodate any business starting from hotels, restaurants to duty free shops, parking lots, all of which will mint money
President Lungu added that the new airport will not only make travel to the Copperbelt city of Ndola “more pleasurable but will also close the travel gap between Zambia and trade partner Katanga Province” in the DRC just next door.
President Lungu´s government created some 3023 direct jobs during the construction period of the airport while some more tan 2000 indirect jobs were created during the same period.
The dependence ratios in Zambia according to studies state that out of everyone person that has a full time job, there are about ten dependents, so once you crunch the numbers you find that President Lungu´s admin has been adding value to the Zambian economy.
The Simon Kapwepwe airport will give birth to restaurants, duty free shops, business for taxi´s barber shops and all the other ingredients that help boost a national economy.
The ´Business Insider Africa´ in a recent article looking at what value airports add to national economies singled out three major airports in Africa that are literally gold mines below:
Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport in Morocco, Kigali International Airport, Seychelles International Airport, Port Elizabeth International Airport and Oliver Reginald Tambo aka ORT in South Africa.
ORT has value addition to the South African economy of about US$3.2 billion annually according to the Business Insider essay, as Kigali, PE and Seychelles continue to rake in billions for their respective countries annually. Think of airports sometimes like a toll gate collecting revenue for departing and arriving flights and passengers.
When you look at airports in through this economic prism, you then realise therefore that President Lungu is taking a positive long shot of expanding the economy of Zambia through a venture that will ultimately create jobs and reduce poverty.
From an economic diplomacy point of view that is the way I see it at least.
If the Simon Kapwepwe airport alone has created some 1000 direct jobs with more to come, how many more have been created since the construction of the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport or KKIA started?
How many more jobs were created when the Harry Mwaanga airport, all on the watch of President Lungu were created since inception?
The majestic KKIA is yet to be switched on by President Lungu but the buzz am getting from frequent travellers, fellow diplomats and business is that its already raised transport and logistics credentials for Zambia pretty high.
Zambia is viewed now as a country of greater, more efficient and better connectivity and this shall exponentially raise the number of planes landing and people entering the country and subsequently burning more money in our country.
So from the roads to the bridges and now airports, it appears President Lungu is headed in the right direction of economic diplomacy.
Let us start seeing an airport beyond planes and terminals in Zambia because as the adage goes, ´wood don’t grow on trees.´
If ORT can rake in about US$3 billions annually for the SA economy, how much money combined could Zambia earn from KKIA, Simon Kapwepwe and Harry Mwanga Nkumbula given our competitive regional land linked location?
The author H.E Anthony Mukwita is the Ambassador of Zambia to Germany.
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