The Zambian Government has signed a 12 million United States dollars loan agreement equivalent to K62.4 billion with the Saudi Fund for Development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Kalabo-Sikongo-Angola border road project.
The Kalabo-Sikongo-Angola road project will be implemented at a total cost of 54 million United States dollars.
Of the 54 million United States dollars, the Arab bank for economic development in Africa (BODEA), the Kuwait Fund for Arab economic development, and the OPEC fund for development will under a signed loan agreement provide 10 million, 14 million and 10 million united states dollars respectively while the Zambian government will provide counterpart funding amounting to 8 million united states dollars.
The agreement was signed in Lusaka this morning between finance and national planning Minister Alexander Chikwanda and vice chairman and managing director of the Saudi Fund for development, Engineer Yousef Ibrahim Al Abdulrahman Al Bassam, and was witnessed by western province minister John Kufuna, Saudi ambassador to Zambia Hassan Attar and officials from the Zambian road agencies.
Speaking during the ceremony, Mr. Chikwanda said the Kalabo-Sikongo-Angola road project is one of the identified SADC and COMESA core-road networks which will contribute towards poverty reduction in the country through trade opportunities which will trigger economic investment.
And engineer Al Bassam said Saudi Arabia is aware of the challenges and needs of development, therefore, the Saudi fund for development is willing to support projects and seeing more applications from the government of Zambia.
QFM
Good deal, even if its with scary Saudis.
Money in reserves is decreasing and loans are increasing….. the ship is heading one way and its for the iceberg for sure…
It is called an investment, now if you want to recoup those costs, you can easily put toll roads in place so that for a period of say 20 years you would have recovered all the funds thus spent on construction. Once those funds have been recovered, unless considered a source of revenue for further development by the Provincial Assembly of the smart people of Barotse Province then, you would leave them in place to help generate more income for other developmental projects. Imagine all the toll fees to be paid by truckers from East Africa hauling goods to Angola, not mentioning those coming from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana etc.
B R mumba great response.
Ba Mwanawakwitu … thanks a trillion, just my two cents
B R Mumba – I wish I could see more blogs like yours. The quality of your blogging is consistently qualitative and is encouraging some of us to resume making comment on the site! Thanks bro!
Ba Kalok … we only have one Zambia and we can always help by disseminating as many ideas for those in government … their time is now to do the best for the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise and our time is now to help any way we can … you are the best.
Good development, we need more of such projects. It will open up the Angolan market and bring about development in the surrounding areas and beyond.
how about mongu kalabo road kaili?
PF lets do this never shud ur hard work be swayed by greedy chaps,rememer that always critics will condemn u but stay focussed…great move GRZ
Barotseand! what a surprise. Any loans for bombs in the pipeline?
The maths doesnt add up in the 3rd paragraph . Maybe the shortfall hs been buried by Liato
We have had cheap oil next door for years. I cannot blame UNIP-KK coz during their time there was war in Angola. The MMD only worked when there was a percentage to be stolen so they allowed the marketing system for oil that would earn them a cut. Way to go PF this is a project once completed will earn the country huge profits and benefits.
Excellent! This is the stuff you should concentrate on! This with the mongu- kalabo road will open up half of western province to development. Sikongo constituency needs to be declared a district as it is almost a hundred kilometres from kalabo from where it is administered. It is actually the lack of road infrastructure that led to frustration and agitation in western province. Without the roads it has been difficult to build modern facilities in the province such as hospitals. Roads will also make it easy to develop tourism as the province has two national parks that of late have been inaccessible due to lack of roads!
We have had cheap oil next door for years. I cannot blame UNIP-KK coz during their time there was war in Angola. The MMD only worked when there was a percentage to be stolen so they allowed the marketing system for oil that would earn them a cut. Way to go PF this is a project once completed will earn the country huge profits and benefits
Looks like a gravel road. You need more money for a tarmac road. Any way, better than nothing.
How much do you have bwana @Ice_Road_Trucker? The govt is doing what it can! If you know a different source of funding, please, by all means help our govt identify this source instead of just complaining unnecessarily. Otherewise; “a bird in hand is worth ten birds in the forest” (as the adage goes!)
GETTING MORE THAN WHAT YOU EARN(can afford to pay back) IS VERY DANGEROUS….just saying…..good deal lads…..
How about this for Ngambela? He will say: ”We dont care about their constitution, it doesnt concern us, we are a free state…as for the road, i wish congratulate the Gvt and accordingly wish to state that BNC will sit to reconsider their earlier decision. You see, when somebody scratches your back, you scratch his too, its a proverb in Lozi. I have realised that this issue doesnt have support even among the Lozis, people keeping us me: Are you going to pay our salaries? How about power which comes from zambia? fuel? How about us who have inter-married and live else where? Why didnt you fight this battle yourselves rather leave it to us the young? Why now? ” So, i am also human, i will live it for other people…but we are a free state though….and the end of the world.
why should zambia borrow money for our roads.we dont need your gravel roads,you can take it to muchinga.we have our own biggggg projects coming and you should pay back the 78 million pounds you store.
*****, you know with the nkoyas and other people groups awakening, plus the educated through wisdom Lozis only limulunga shall be lozi land watch and see.
@ice-road-trucker, it is a tarmac road. The total cost of the road is 54 million dollars. The funding of the road will be split amongst gov’ts and lending institutions. The Saudis have just signed for their 12 million dollar contribution to the 54million pot. 54 million is adequate for a tarred road between kalabo and sikongo!
Too little too late.. This is pure mockery and mere child’s play. Zambia is not serious about development. Another gravel road for what? We should be talking about constructing a Zambia-Angola highway. Angola imports heavily from Brazil. Why can’t we see this as a potential market for Zambian products and with that build appropriate infrastructure? The gravel road from Kalabo to Sikongo and the Angolan boarder has always been there. What porverty has it reduced? A more preferred route these days from Angola to Zambia by road is via Namibia? Does this make sense considering Angola’s economic significancy within the SADC?
Ba Chikwanda having your own nephew deputizing you is normal to you? What a govt for sure.
We need to open up this country. Lets just work together guys and stop the Barotse antagonism. We suffer together and prosper together.
BNC what will they say?
This is exactly what is needed in Western Province, in fact I hereby encourage the President of the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise to change the name from Western Province to Barostse Province. The people of that province really have no clue what they have been sitting on for the longest, they are the only ones in Zambia with the closest route to one of Africa’s richest nations ports that can’t even fully feed itself. This road has the ability to open new markets for the smart people of the newly named Barostse Province from all agricultural products elsewhere in Zambia, enhance collaboration with Angola and other bilateral measures. The people of Barostse Province need to realize that it is in their best interest to be hospital and not call others “kimasholi”
I meant to say “… The people of Barostse Province need to realize that it is in their best interest to be “hospitable” and not call others “kimasholi” … my goodness, I am growing old now and typing too fast does not help either. I am kicking my butt, too many typos.
Anyway, the kimasholi, kimanyuku nyuku syndrome has made a lot of people not feel welcome in Barostse Province, in fact it is one of the provinces where an average Zambian from other parts of Zambia really feels a little out of place. The smart people of Barostse Province need to look at all provinces that have developed faster within Zambia, their common denominator was that people from all walks of life within Zambia easily mingled, the same is true of Lusaka Province as well as Copperbelt Province.
This is long overdue, i hope the lay a broadband cable whilst they are contructing that road, definitely alternative option to access the Americas.
Here are the new names of each province in Zambia:
Luapula Province remains that
Muchinga Province remains that
Northern Province should be called Mpulungu Province in honor of the our one and only in land port.
Eastern should be named Luangwa Province in honor of one of our main four rivers
Southern should be called Musi-o-tunya Province in honor of the mighty Victoria Falls
Central should be called Masansa (cross road) Province, it connects every major route to reach any part of the country.
Lusaka Province remains that
Copperbelt becomes Mukuba Province after our major export
Western, Barotse Province
NW, Zambezi Province after the mighty Zambezi
No pressure, why should others be in English while others are not … just my two cent as per usual.
Good suggestion Brainwave. It surely makes more sense renaming the provinces using indigenous names. Can you also include this in your contribution to the draft constitution as we continue perusing it.
Coachez:
Will do just that, pal
i am 100% BEHIND NAME CHANGES ABOVE. WELL DONE
Just my two cents as per usual, I know we have a listening government now … three years ago, I made a similar suggestion to change the names of the our major airports, three years now … Voilà l’homme!!!
@ 2 The Engineer (Australia)
It is called an investment, now if you want to recoup those costs, you can easily put toll roads in place so that for a period of say 20 years you would have recovered all the funds thus spent on construction. Once those funds have been recovered, unless considered a source of revenue for further development by the Provincial Assembly of the smart people of Barotse Province then, you would leave them in place to help generate more income for other developmental projects. Imagine all the toll fees to be paid by truckers from East Africa hauling goods to Angola, not mentioning those coming from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana etc
@ BR Mumba Sr,
While some of your name suggestions are welcome, I find it strange that you see nothing wrong with your suggested Barotse (Balozi) Province which in my opinion implies that you want Western Province named after a particular group of people in a province that is multi tribal or multi ethnic?
Picking neutral names would be idea in the case of Zambia since we are a multi ethnic country. Even our proposed Kafue Province is a neutral name rather than a name that implies or relates to a particular group.
On the Road project, we believe that is the right move my the government to pay attention to the infrastructure needs of Western Province. For some of us, our ancestors used to trade with the Angolan region dating back 100s of years…why are we failing to do that now?
I totally agree with BR Mumba on renaming the provinces with local names. But I equally concur with your very good observation on western province because this is what created even the Barotse Agreement wrangle. No single tribal in the four corners of our beloved country should see themselves as being more superior and important than other tribes, for we are all equal as One Zambia One Nation.
National security, build a military base in fact third a ZAF bush training facility close to the Angolan border, because contraband shall flow when roads like this open. Four tolls, one for paying the three for security checks. This money shall be aerned back in a sinch.
Thank you Kafue province advocate for pointing out the western province and its multi array of people groups. Thank you Jesus for giving us 73 people groups, it balances out noise, filters out nonsense.
Bravo because his observation was very right.
@mwanawakwitu, don’t let kafue province advocate mislead you. There is not tribe in western province called balozi or Barotse. Not even the litungas can claim to be lozis. Their tribe is luyi. Their mother tongue is siluyana. Just ask this same advocate to point out to you a prominent person who is lozi by tribe! The term Barotse or balozi is Sotho description of people in western province. It simply means people of the plains i.e this the pattern of settlement in western province along river valleys, canals, and around oxbow lakes. Actually barotseland is equivalent to calling eastern province as nyanjaland. It does not refer to tribe!
Ba Kafue Province Advocate:
I appreciate your feedback, as you can see each of the names picked has some symbolic significance to it. I personally think it would be symbolic to use the name Barotse Province because it is part of our historic heritage that was signed as part of our independence regardless of tribal connotations. Now, I have my personal opinion on how flawed the BA of 64 was and I can actually debunk the entire theory if I wanted to but in the name of reconciliation and moving the nation as a forward, Barotse Province would be a significant achievement for the current cause. Also, not every name I suggested is inclusive, one would urgue that Musi-o-tunya may well be called Batoka Province as well. It more of semantics than frivolities in my opinion. Thanks, once more.
Brainwave, it’s alright for others to make their contributions, but at least you opened the door to this very important discussion. Much as I agree with your reasoning, I agree with Kafue Province Advocate. Remember from childhood, giving names that relate to a certain tribe especially with the on-going wrangles over the BA, will just give them more ammunition to continue thinking they have been right all along. Good suggestions though brother and keep em coming and make sure such important suggestions are submitted in the draft constitution. And watch out for those that are now claiming there is no such tribe as Lozi when our history tells us otherwise. Take a peek at http://www.mbitachitala.blogspot.com/
There are at least 25 tribes in western province. Some of them are luyi, kwangwa, nyengo, humbe or kalanga, subiya, totems, kwandu, kwamashu, mbukushu, makwengo or bushmen, nyengo, totela, nyengo, nkoya etc. Of these only 4 have chiefs. These are the Luyi i.e the litunga and senior chiefs, then you have the mbunda chiefs, nkoya chiefs and the nkoya chiefs. So it is nonsense to claim that their is atribe called barotse.
I notice I said nkoya chiefs twice. It is supposed to read and subiya chiefs.
My posts seem to be disappearing. Countrymen despite claims by Mr kafue province advocate, there is actually no single tribe in western province known as barotse or lozi. Barotse is a general term for the more than 25 tribes in western province. Not even the litungas belong to the mythical lozi tribe. Litungas are luyi by tribe and their language is siluyana.
But yet since time imemorial you guys have been called lozis and now you want us to believe there is no such thing as a lozi. Since my childhood in the mid late 60’s to the time I worked for ZCCM in the 80’s and 90’s whenever I asked my friends Mubita Mubita, Mwiya, Mundia, Sishenyi etc what tribe they were, they always said they were lozi and not these tribes you are throwing at us. I am curious though to learn more about all this. Can you write up a document that thoroughly explain how this issue of being called lozis came about which I bet every non western still believes there is a tribe called lozi going all the way to our history books.
WOW!
This is better than good,
Now ALL Engineers and associated professionals in Diaspora can go Home in confident and start to build the New world empire: AFRICA
THIS BLOG HAS MADE MORE SENSE FOR ME THAN THE PREVIOUS ONES…IF WE CAN BE THIS OBJECTIVE AND SUPPORT OUR NOBLE CAUSE,OUR COUNTRY WILL BE A BETTER PLACE….
@coachez, my dear there is nothing more I can add to educate you. You have access to the internet, and there is a lot of information about people of western province. I am quite sure you will come across the fact that the kololo did not overthrow lozi chiefs but luyi chiefs. Silozi language is derived from Sotho. Most of the tribes do not speak their original languages but have adopted silozi as their lingua franca and are all generally referred to as lozis.
It has really made sense for me too. very educative. The only comments that spoil this blog are those coming from cadres. Especially with the barn of consumption of tujilijili, people have nothing to do other than blurfing on LT