THE Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) has announced that the 100 solar milling plants under the presidential initiative will be in full operational by 15 February this year.
ZCF director General James Chirwa said in an interview that all the solar mills arrived in Zambia last month from China and the installation is currently ongoing in different parts of the country.
The milling plants which are being installed in each of the country’s 10 provinces are aimed at cutting the cost of mealie meal that has reached unprecedented prices in recent months.
Three of the plants which arrived earlier last month are already producing the staple food in Kasama, Luwingu and Solwezi. The mealie meal is being sold at K55 per 50 kilogramme bag of breakfast and K50 of roller meal of the similar quantity.
“The milling plants have all arrived and the installation is currently taking place, and we hope that all of them would be in full operational by 15 February.
“This is an important milestone because it is going to cut off factors that have caused the increase in mealie meal prices in Zambia,” Mr Chirwa said.
The country has experienced unprecedented hike in the pricing of the staple food, forcing the intervention of President Edgar Lungu as millers threatened for more increase.
The increased Zesco power outages which were coupled by maize shortages had also forced the Government to the commodity to millers in a bid to stabilize the price of mealie meal.
“As fuel price goes up as well as the cost of electricity it has become almost inevitable for the cost of mealie meal to also increase but this will now be different we have already proved it in the districts where we are producing,” he said.
Mr Chirwa assured the consumers that the cost of mealie meal produced by solar plants would be affordable and sustainable.
As well as helping to reduce mealie meal prices, the solar hammer mills are expected to create more than 3,000 jobs.
We voted you PF and we are voting you
SO YOU HH YOU ARE FIGHTING LUNGU SO THAT YOU CAN GO AND ENJOY IN STATE HOUSE.SELFISH MAN.YOU NOW REVEALING YOUR INTENTIONS IS NOT TO SERVE THE PEOPLE BUT TO ENJOY AT STATE HOUSE.SHAME
You are accursed together with your sponsors. How do you bring in an innocent person who is not mentioned in this article? This only shows the level of your ignorance and how dull all of you hired pf carders are who post rubbish on the social media. You should know that God is watching you and He knows all your ill motives. Stop selling the unity of Zambia over pieces of bread. Your pf project is unsustainable in God’s sight because it is Him who is fighting it, so no matter how you try to sell it to Zambians, it is too late. Sorry guys you have already lost the elections, the best you can do is to prepare for an exit.
AS I SAID IN A SIMILAR SOLAR MILLING PLANTS ARTICLE, THE GOVT SHOULD COME UP (UNDER IDC) EXPANSION DEVELOPMENT POLICIES FOR THESE PLANTS. THESE PLANTS SHOULDN’T REMAIN THE WAY THEY ARE ORIGINALLY. THEY SHOULD BE DEVELOPED INTO BIG FULLY FLEDGED PLANTS TO HANDLE ALL SORT OF GRAINS AS PART OF THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIALIZATION AGENDA THE GOVT SEEMS DETERMINED TO DEVELOP. IN TURN THESE WILL HAVE THE CAPACITY TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF FARMERS IN VARIOUS GRAINS AND THEREFORE, EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES.
There is need to look into the commercial supply of grains otherwise the solar generated from these plants will be used merely for light and heat purpose.
User friendly agriculture policies like subsidised electricity for farmers just the mines are favoured will energise people to grow diverse crops and not only maize.
Duty free farming inputs etc etc and expansion of these plants as mentioned by Peter above could culminate into exports to countries like Zimbabwe and the DRC.
Edgar is sharp and he is winning convincingly ! ECL , am behind you.
Who can wrong a wise man blessed of a God. HE Lungu is THE winning ticket. Things are surfacing that show strategy and vision. While people speak of a Vision, he works his vision quietly.
Really, Zambians would need to be seriously blocked not to see the way foward.
Staff should wear head caps when working in such an environment where they process food