Veteran academician Prof. Naison Ngoma says there is a need for President Hakainde Hichilema to address the nation on the high cost of living after UPND Members of Parliament shunned to discuss the matter in Parliament last week.
Speaking as Secretary of People’s Pact, a consortium of organisations, Prof. Ngoma said the high cost of living currently prevailing in Zambia is a serious issue that should not be politicized.
The former Copperbelt University vice Chancellor said President Hichilema should use his address to the nation on the cost of living to explain why prices of essentials such as fuel, mealie meal and electricity have gone up rapidly.
Prof. Ngoma said the high cost of living affects many Zambians hence the need for the Government to address it urgently.
Speaking to Radio Icengelo News in Ndola, Prof. Ngoma added that the Peoples Pact was also concerned about high poverty levels in the country.
“Instead of discussing the high cost of living, we saw the Members of Parliament from the ruling party walking out of Parliament. Unprecedented move, refusing to discuss what is fundamental to every man, to every child to every woman in this country. That was not right, they needed to talk, they needed to meet each other and resolve the issue. This is not a matter of belonging to this or that political party but a matter of being a Zambian, being a person in Zambia but not able to afford certain basics in life. This is beyond partisan politics,” Prof. Ngoma said.
“Perhaps this is the time the President needs to address this matter since clearly the Members of Parliament have failed to address it. This is the time that our President would then be able to address this matter so that he can put a number of things on the high cost of living to rest. From where we stand we see a lot of challenges which possibly such an address by our President would answer. Maybe this is the right time to come through and address the nation on these crucial issues of affordability, people can’t afford. The President might perhaps address the cost of fuel today,” he said.
Prof. Ngoma said the People’s Pact feels time is ripe to tackle poverty through good governance, peace and unity.
“Looking at certain facts, we know that towards the end of 2021 the cost of fuel was K17.62 and by 2025 the cost of fuel was K34.9 per litre. Look at the cost of mealie meal K170 per 25 kg bag in 2021 but today the same bag of mealie meal on average is knocking K400 plus. Look at the cost of living, the JCTR food basket was about K7, 000 in 2021 but in 2025 that food basket has gone to K10, 800. So there are many issues which the President might wish to address so that we can understand where we are going, is there hope around. As a People’s Pact we feel compelled to join the voices of the Shakafuswa of this world and more voices coming from society today,” he said.
Prof. Ngoma, who served as CBU Vice Chancellor for eight (8) years, is a Doctor of Philosophy with a Masters in Public Administration from the University of the Western Cape and has Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Zambia.
You only address when you have solutions, not so? Address and say what. We were told 2023 would be year of economic revival and nothing happened and we are in 2025 now.
Dream on. HH would rather address the nation on the cost of dying. His is a firefighting adminstration which only acts after a disaster. Sorry His is a fire-fighting adminstration which pretends to act only after a disaster
His own Vice President told us, they will increase to reduce the costs and that they are not the manufacturers. 2021 to 2026 are wasted years, it’s done. It’s just to hide in the last drought now, what else, though the incompetence is glaring
Address the Nation? You don’t see him running around working hard to address the cost of living by increasing trade and economic growth? What a poor mindset. What is a Press Conference going to do to reduce poverty and hunger?? This type of thinking is from the Kaunda days where KK had Press Conferences every week just to appease the people and never addressed the real practical issues of economic development. These old people should retire and let new mindsets become Lectures.
Running around for 4 years with no results, if it were football the guy would have been substituted by now.
How long did pf and Lungu perform the Uwamwibala alya mwibala? 11 years.Nomba you want UPND to magically turn the country into Dubai for 4 years. There is a saying that Rome wasn’t built in a day and so Zambia won’t be built in a single presidential term.
Granted, the nation needs to be addressed on the rapid rise in the cost of living, but those who walked out of parley were not only UPND MPs but also PF and Independent MPs.
You were part of PF Misrule. we know too well and rundown CBU. At your age, I would be enjoying my retirement
New Kopala language, we would rather be beaten by cadres and have food. ” we agree twale ponoka kuma cadres but twalelya”. What are they communicating? What does that say, it means they are saying that you can talk about removal of cadres, free education, debt restructuring and that whole hollow list but at the end of the day it is bread and butter issues that count
PF Mealiemeal K130 UPND K400
PF dollar K21 UPND K28
PF fuel per litre K17, UPND K34
PF load shedding 4hrs UPND 20hrs
(And a minister asked the audience to clap for him for providing power for 3 hours and the audience clapped
Don’t argue with me, argue with the stats provided please
@Akwao these variables arent complete. How about adding “Which cabinet had bigger potbellies-PF or UPND”? Oroso “which President was fit enough to step on sticks and jump over floodwaters”? Perhaps Lungu could oroso do that because he always ran in the morning in front of DeadNBC cameras
Hiding in drought and yet the downward trajectory started way before the drought. 4 years of blaming the previous government, the only achievements being travelling and travelling and a basket full of hollow self praise. Start working, time is not on your side
Given a choice between the Ubomba mwibala government and the imita ufole government, I would go for the former because food and other commodities were more affordable then
A sovereign default is a nation’s failure to repay its debt obligations. It has serious economic consequences for the nation, making it expensive or impossible for it to borrow money in the future. It also causes domestic turmoil.
For the defaulting government and its citizens, the consequences of sovereign debt default will vary depending on such factors as the state of the economy and public finances, the degree of dependence on external financing, and the likelihood that creditors will return in the future.
If a country depends heavily on foreign creditors to finance investment, the consequences of its sovereign default are likely to include slower economic growth, making things harder for its citizens and businesses.
As Zambians we must learn to work and NOT -he who works in a field eats from the field-
What Are the Most Common Reasons for U.S. Sanctions?
The U.S. tends to sanction countries that violate human rights or sponsor terrorism.
Zambia, Zambia. Why have we become so cheap?
We have ourselves chosen to be cheap and useless. One, we are failing to work together and allowing each one for himself.
We love to import and hate to be creative.
How many Zambians in the diaspora are investing in Zambia? Why?
Ubuloshi, wizardly, all encourage laziness.
How can an Honorable member of Parliament engage wizardly. Is Zambia really a CHRIST NATION?
Akwao don’t deceive yourself with misinformation. Your comparison will only make sense if you tell us what those figures you’re showing for the Defunct TuPF criminals government were when they came into power. For example they found the dollar at K5 left it at K17 according to you but it could have been higher than that.
Vote wisely vote for HH7 in 2026/31
And you are proud to take the dollar to a record K28 because PF got it to K17 from 5. I would suggest you sit down
It is all wrong to misunderstand democracy. The greatest value of democracy is intelligent patience. It can easily be from the frying pan into the fire. Democracy calls for critical thinking no matter how times or situations may appear. remember that it is always darkest before dawn.
With PF under President Sata was fine. Now, how many PF members saw that President Sata was being undermined because of his appointments? Our Zambian Intelligence, advised President Sata to fire two people. unfortunately, he only fired one person, the Clinical Officer of Chawama Clinic. The Clinical Officer started entering State House illegally and influenced the unfired cheap. That is what PF got because of appointing relatives.
Prof. Naison Ngoma should be the one explaining factors behind the escalating cost of living. Factors world wide are known by all the elite or those that read to update themselves with world trends of cost of living. Prof. Ngoma reads and understand reasons affecting cost of living. Political explanation and academic presentation over cost of living will differ in variation. Prof Ngoma knows that and should explain to the nation and not politicking. Fuel here in UK is equivalent to K44 per litre. In Zambia it’s only K34 per litre. Prof Ngoma should be offering plausible explanation without political bias.
I concur.Professor Goma should respect himself as former Vice Chancellor.Comparing prices of mangoes yesterday to that of today is damn street economics.The economic hardships of today are a result of a country trying to correct structural anomalies from that of an import and consumptive economy to that of export and capital accumulative one. This is taking place in situation of a vicious cycle of a high debt trap and world inflationary pressures, perhaps even recession
These Mr Professor, are the circumstances that HH and team find themselves navigating us.It is not child’s play.Capital accumulation demands sweat and tears.Please spread the word
Confused MP Kafwaya brought his debate out of time.No one was willing to sit and discuss “Ilyashi ya mubwalwa”They simply were not ready.
How can he explain when he doesn’t know what has hit him.
Already there’s a wrangle over census population figures of the last headcount…. first time in my life to witness a dispute of this kind.
I concur.Professor Goma should respect himself as former Vice Chancellor.Comparing prices of mangoes yesterday to that of today is damn street economics.The economic hardships of today are a result of a country trying to correct structural anomalies from that of an import and consumptive economy to that of export and capital accumulative one. This is taking place in situation of a vicious cycle of a high debt trap and world inflationary pressures, perhaps even recession
These Mr Professor, are the circumstances that HH and team find themselves navigating us.It is not child’s play.Capital accumulation demands sweat and tears.Please spread the word
MP Kafwaya brought his debate out of time.No one was willing to sit and discuss “Ilyashi ya mubwalwa”They simply were not ready.
Now we’re being petty….so what difference will it make listening to hollow speeches….we need to work hard as a country and solve our problems…HH is a Politician and he was looking for employment campaigning for 20 years….now he is busy lining up his pockets with shishi….Just like Trump is busy lining up his pockets and Elon Musk is now stealing left right and centered pocketing every US penny he comes across
And why do Politicians get excited when we have a national tragedy….why do they become hyped up???? You see them jumping up and down….running around in circles as if they have super powers to stop any tragedy…they’re sick in the head….come Drought we blame it on the sitting President…come heavy rains we blame it on the sitting President…are we normal????..and yet we throw garbage everywhere and clog our drainage system
I think you need to demand something more productive. Address the nation? We have had enough yapping the past four years. What will come out of another address? New graphs?
I voted UPND and with their performance especially the exchange rate which is a reflection of their poor economic management I regret I made such an error.
Promises were made of ending poor economic management but I have failed to see how these promises were kept. The mines are the biggest let down, they bankrupted the country by consuming all the electricity destroying the informal sector, we give them tax waivers and yet the nation benefits close to nothing. We have an overbloated civil service with a wage bill that is unsustainable when we are supposed to be cutting down. But alas, economists know everything, their winning formula is yet to bring the Kwacha to K10 to the USD.
Why is the high cost of living making it difficult for pupils to study well?
Its about time all Politicians get 9 to 5 jobs so that they can start working and contributing to our economy…not just feeding on Politics and donations…they need to start working like everybody else….they should disband all those useless alliances and go out and look for real employment…
If you start thinking like these UPND guys that because PF moved the MMD dollar from K5 to K17, so they are also okay to move it to a record high of K28( highest ever), then we are doomed as a country. They make sure they blame all bad things on PF and never praise them that they kept the dollar lower than them
Truth be told, UPND is currently far from convincing or getting a vote from a nonpartisan in this country. I see someone crying foul next year because of self-praise. They are behaving exactly like RB full of themselves and lying to each other that things are ok. People need food. Learn to listen and save the little support you still have otherwise you will all cry like PF not knowing what happened.