Business News

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:52:46 +0000

Zambia’s economy poised  to post over 4pc growth

 By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

ZAMBIA’S economic growth for 2017 is poised to exceed the projected 3.9 percent owing to developments in key economic sectors such as mining and agriculture, the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has said.

BoZ governor, Denny Kalyalya, explained that the Central bank was optimistic that the 2017 economic growth would exceed 3.9 percent due to positive developments such as good rainfall in the agriculture sector and high copper prices in the mining sector.

“Definitely Zambia can grow at higher levels of more than 3.9 percent. It is possible to beat the projected 3.9 percent owing to sectors such as agriculture, and mine  which are back into production after having had scaled down,

“There are a number of areas which can drive growth further such as tourism but we have to be aggressive in how we deal with these things,” he said.

Speaking during the ZNBC Sunday Interview programme, Dr Kalyalya said it was possible for Zambia to start growing at 7 percent like in the previous 10 years.

He however said there was need to be aggressive to attain such growth.

“For us, we had some serious challenges in 2015 and part of 2016 but things are beginning to look up now, this year we have had a lot of rains, that is huge opportunity in terms of agriculture,

“Growth is positive and 3.9 percent is projected. But we need to grow bigger. It is possible for Zambia to start growing at 7 percent like in the past 10 years, we can do that, we still have unexploited potential,” he said.

And commenting on the financial literacy week which was currently running, Dr Kalyalya said Government would launch a 3-year financial inclusion campaign this year.

He said the campaign would be rolled out in the second quarter of 2017 to different parts of Zambia.

“Our strategic plan is for a period of 3 years up to 2019 so we are going to break it down into smaller components, it is our expectation that we will be making progress in reducing interest rates,’’ he said.

He further urged commercial banks to be friendlier to clients and create an environment which made people comfortable to access financial products and services.

Dr Kalyalya urged banks to partner with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in rolling out financial services and products.

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Use technology to fight climate change, says IAPRI

 By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

ZAMBIA has many options of dealing with the current climatic conditions such as wider use of technologies to “harvest” water and conserve soil moisture, says Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI).

IAPRI research associate, Olipa Mbata, said the Zambian agriculture sector had many options of dealing with the current climate change which had made it vulnerable.

She said this during her presentation at the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Sustainability Summit in Lusaka recently.

Ms Mbata further said other options included managing river basins for more efficient delivery of irrigation services and preventing water logging, erosion and nutrient leakage.

“On agriculture and food security, precipitation, temperature and water availability for agricultural purposes will be affected by climate change,

“Climate change is a threat to global food security, sustainable development and poverty eradication.” she said.

She said other options in the sector included undertaking changes in forest management, comprising hardwood/softwood species mix, timber growth, non-timber forest products and harvesting patterns,

“Other options include introducing forest conservation, agroforestry and forest-based enterprises for diversification of rural incomes,” she said.

Ms Mbata said it was important that the agriculture subsector included crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, adapted to a changing climate.

She explained that the agriculture sector was one of the most affected by climate change among other sectors in Africa due to its high dependence on climatic factors such as precipitation and temperature.

Ms Mbata said some of the effects of climate change were that 20 to 30 percent of fish species of the earth could disappear while reducing biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services.

She emphasised the need to strengthen institutions at local, national, and regional levels to support agriculture to deal with climate change.

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Local raw materials producers get Bata Zambia challenge

By MAILESI BANDA

BATA Zambia has challenged local producers to supply factories with quality raw materials for the manufacture of their products.

Bata Zambia managing director Prosper Bachi said his company was facing the challenge of having to buy  raw materials for the manufacturing of their industrial shoes from South Africa. Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Bachi said Zambia could not supply the raw material needed at the factory because there was no company that stocked the required raw materials.

He said in the company’s quest to serve the Zambian people with quality products to maintain the Bata standards it was forced to import the raw materials.

“At the moment there is no one that stocks PVC which we use in the production of industrial shoes and this leads to us importing the material from South Africa even though the production is done in Zambia, “he said.

He said Bata Zambia, apart from being in the retail sector was also consolidating in the manufacturing sector of safety shoes.

He explained that the shoes manufactured in Zambia ranged from those used in the industries and farmers.

He reaffirmed the company’s commitment to ensuring it contributed to the Zambians economic growth by providing employment and quality products.

“Even after almost falling out of business in the 1980 due to some economic challenges faced at the Zambian branch we have bounced back and are still contributing to the economic growth of the country,” he said.

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Insurance firms challenged to step up their marketing activities 

By MAILESI BANDA

GOVERNMENT does not need to change legislation to convince people to get insurance products, says Insurers Association of Zambia (IAZ) consumer education officer Kambole Chituwo.

Mr. Chituwo said the challenge to market the insurance products lay with insurance companies who needed to do more to ensure people accessed insurance services.

He said people were not aware what kinds of insurance products were available, adding that there was need for the companies to increase their awareness campaigns.

He said that Zambians like everyone else needed insurance cover because of the different risks they were exposed to.

“The need for insurance products is very real and people face a lot of challenges that need insurance cover but the biggest challenge however is the lack of knowledge, “he said.

He appealed to insurance companies to educate the people on the products available, adding that the knowledge would encourage people access the different products available.

He said there was need for Zambians to prepare for unforeseen events by responsibly insuring their properties and life.

“There is urgent need to shift to a scenario where we move from being risk takers to being responsible and getting insurance products to protect investments,” he said.

He said there were a number of insurance products that were available and challenged people that owned property to research and get more informed.

“There are various types of insurance products people could get, there is house insurance property insurance and more of which people could protect their property which takes years to acquire from being lost,” he said.

He advised that people needed to look at the risks they faced in their daily lives and work towards getting an insurance cover.