Thu, 17 Aug 2017 12:39:29 +0000
By Kelvin Siabana
THE stability of the Kwacha against major currencies has raised a lot of interest in the Kitwe and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KDCCI), says its president Allan Nyirenda.
Mr Nyirenda said the chamber was watching the Kwacha with keen interest even though very little information was being made available on the factors that were accelerating its resilience.
Mr Nyirenda was speaking during a KDCCI awards ceremony which was attended by various companies based in Kitwe celebrated under the theme “Multiple Frontiers -actualising alternatives to copper.”
He said the chamber believed that it may be too soon for the benefits of the stable Kwacha to trickle down to the people on the ground.
“We are also monitoring closely what is happening in the financial sector and we appreciate that the Bank of Zambia has announced a reduction in the policy rate from 9.5 percent to 12.5 percent,” Mr Nyirenda said.
Despite the reduction in the policy rate, Mr Nyirenda said the financial sector was moving at a very slow pace in adjusting their lending rates of comfort.
He said this move in itself posed a big challenge where growth was concerned for many organisations in Kitwe.
Mr Nyirenda said most of the members of the KDCCI found it difficult to access affordable finance due to unattractive interest rates offered by financial institutions. “In as much as we appreciate a free market economy and a liberalised financial sector we appeal to the central bank to put modalities that will make the financial sector to be in line with the bank’s policy rate reduction,” he said.
In spite of all the challenges, Mr Nyirenda said KDCCI has called on various stakeholders to embrace the new frontiers in the economy by being aggressive and competitive in identifying opportunities in other sectors of the economy rather than depending highly on the mining sector because diversification was the way to go forward.
Mr Nyirenda said the country had depended too much on the copper sector for many years and there is need to seriously diversify into the agriculture sector for the economy to grow,
The winners in the media category were Fava FM radio which scooped the most popular radio station and in second place was Your Anthem Radio (YAR FM).
