Zambia’s Path to Self-Reliance: Hichilema Calls for End to Aid Dependence
The days of waiting for foreign handouts must end, President Hakainde Hichilema declared yesterday in a passionate address that may well mark a turning point for Zambia’s development journey. Speaking before a gathering of policymakers and international partners, the President delivered an uncomfortable truth: the world has changed, and Zambia must change with it.
“We’ve been living with this idea that someone else will always come to our rescue,” Hichilema said, his voice carrying the weight of a nation that has seen too many empty promises. “But look around – the rules have changed. The droughts are worse, the money is harder to come by, and the patience of our people is running thin.”
The numbers tell a sobering story. Last year’s failed rains left nearly a third of the population needing food assistance, while global aid flows have stagnated as wealthy nations battle their own crises. What was once a steady stream of development assistance has become unpredictable at best, nonexistent at worst.
Yet in typical Hichilema fashion, the message wasn’t just about problems – it came with a clear plan. The government is betting big on irrigation, pouring resources into water harvesting projects and drought-resistant seeds. There’s talk of factories that will make medicines instead of importing them, and schools that teach Zambians to build rather than beg.
Not everyone is convinced. Some economists whisper that the timeline – three years to food security – is impossibly ambitious. Others point to Zambia’s debt burden, a lingering ghost of past borrowing sprees. Even UN official Rabab Fatima, while praising the vision, gently warned against swapping aid dependency for debt dependency.
But the President seems determined to change the narrative. “We’re not asking for sympathy,” he said firmly. “We’re asking our people to roll up their sleeves. The fields won’t irrigate themselves. The clinics won’t staff themselves. This is our country to build.”
As the sun set over Lusaka, the question hung in the air: Can a nation weaned on aid learn to feed itself? The answer, like Zambia’s future, remains unwritten. But one thing is clear – the old way of doing things is no longer an option. The real work begins now.
Please what is our National debt standing at now ? that has brought this self reliance to light
This is the best message yet…in the yesteryears this saw the birth of various industry, pineapple canning in NWP, Groundnut shelling in EP, Kapiri Glass factory, INDECO, MEMACO, INDENI, FINDECO…ZISC, ZANACO, MWAISENI, ZCCM, RCM….ZAFFICO, UBZ, KAFIRONDA, ZAMBIA AIRWAYS, ZAMEFA, NAMBOARD …. Let us do it for ourselves, we have vast land yet we build malls, this should be farmed as a major exporter of Food we cannot go wrong
That’s the way to go. But the reporter/author of the article comes out as a conservative, who doesn’t believe that zambians through hardworking, innovativeness and investment with the spirit of self reliance, can change the economic status of of Zambia, and finally become an exporter and donor to other African nations. Let’s us not be negative minded like the writer
We have very innovative young people who have travelled the world and have seen how countries function while the politicians are playing their political games. Bring them in and believe me they will do the job. Because they have seen that it works. Ba Yufi please, we are looking up to you. To serve and not to plunder…
Belgium was without an elected government for 541 days and yet everything functioned. This should be the goal for mother Zambia.
Not circulating old and washed out politicians who are there for what they can put in their pockets.
Faith, I thank you for thought. And you should have firstly thanked HH for his political will to empower the youth especially in terms of education and skills. HH has started and you are just supposed to support and simplify HH’s vision by suggesting and bringing modifiers.
But development can not be achieved by youths alone, but by both the young and the old. After all, you faith, you are the way you are by the old. Whilst the youth are encouraged to come on board, it doesn’t mean that The old are useless. That thinking may be summarized as childish thinking
@loya Paul, What education are you talking about? How many have been educated under HH? What have they contributed to the country so far? Stop being in a hurry to sing praises. First let the manna fall.
Yes it does mean the old have been updated many times over
they need to be put out to pasture !!
The only reason he has said so is because international aid is drying up putting African countries in a tight corner. Otherwise the speech would have been begging for assistance from donors/ partners, our all weather friends etc etc..
Just read his comments to Deutsche Weller journalists who were at State house. He is begging them to sell Zambia as an investment destination! These are journalists not marketers or trade attaches-and foreign for that matter. They should start marketing Zambia for what??
Where is his own State marketing team? If ever there was a Timbwi no plan!
Exactly
To market Zambia as an investment destination for FDIs………
As opposed to free aid and bailouts……
Any help in marketing is welcome……
Tribal hate and a loser mentality are the worst form of enemies of development
FWD2031
Iwe Spaka any help yakuti? Make your own plan and effect it. You can’t invite investment solely via the goodwill of your ex colonial masters.
Haven’t you seen how “Visit Rwanda” is constantly on public view on Europe’s billboards? On Football club jerseys in Spain, Bundesliga England, etc etc. That advertising is not from charity but from Kagame’s Plan.
Born in Maramba
Kigame is not saddled with billions of unsustainable PF debt…….
If it is free………
On top of GRZ advertising, any other channels of advertising is welcome and sought after……..
Even the the royal family of UK would be welcome to advertise for investment in Zambia………..
FWD2031
What a lame excuse!
“the billions of debt we inherited from the previous government is clogging our minds. We can’t think. We can’t initiate anything because of the billions of debt we inherited from PF. Can anyone from Europe please help!
Let’s just keep sleeping in cabinet meetings and stealing from the treasury”
Our dependence must be solely on the basis of balance of trade and not aid dependency. Baroness Dambisa Moyo advised over 15 years ago and no one listened. It had to take Donald Trump’s second term to jolt sleepy donor beneficiaries to snap awake and realise this was an unsustainable model. Some of us have given proactive advice which was in line with the Trump action years ago. No one listened. Until it snaps is when scrambling happens. Again, insulate health, agriculture, and education. You can get donor aid for tourism, inter-university cooperation at a higher level like R&D, and perhaps social welfare supplementation.
Just seen the K200 new note
Not impressed with the coluur design and paper
Whoever designed this and even approved it ???
We have nothing to do with aid dependency. It’s you politicians who tie us to aid because you are too lazy to come up with ideas to free us from aid. Which president has left office having feed us from aid dependency? In fact when privatizing, HH just tied us to foreigners (and foreign dependency) as he never ensured that Zambians started to own the means of production.
* Which president has left office having freed us from aid dependency?
No president has managed that……KK tried his best but Zambians failed him, we failed to run the privatised companies……..
Maybe this time round it can happen
FWD2031
Saying it is easy.
Tomorrow we will be knocking on IMF door.
We give away our minerals at give away.
Bally has hit the nail on the head. Our culture of dependency must come to an end. We need to change our working culture in our country as well. I totally agree with our president, we must start being self reliant. It’s not easy but it has to start somewhere. Greatest achievements are the ones that start as impossibilities. We can do it.
It has to start with the President.
Nope ,it has to start with us all Maramba.A president and leaders are always a reflection of the voters…if the voters are unproductive ,incompetent and unskilled the other partners will never work miracles.
Enka, do you know what leadership is? No humans on earth have ever led themselves. Those who vie for leadership office are the ones that assume LEADERSHIP.
Of course If you study social science you will read about society reaching the “leaderless” stage in what is called Utopia. However, we have yet to achieve that. “Start with us all” is an excuse by failed leadership. They are merely passing the buck. Make people start! Just do your job. Lead! We have had many a successful leader on this planet.
Tis Zambian scientists, industrialists ,entrepreneurs ,engineers ,commercial farmers ,agro processors and such to free Zambia from aid dependency.GRZ and HH can never do it alone …they just provide an enabling environment.
Leadership is important baba. Have you ever heard of visionaries like Chairman Mao?
How do you advocate for self reliance when in the background you are busy auctioning Zambia’s resources to the lowest bidders? How do you generate your own revenue with zero ownership of assets?
If HH can walk more than the talk, the exchange rate would have been at k5 per dollar, fuel would have been less than k17, mealie meal would have been at k50, fertilizer would have been at k350 by now. That is HH for you. Talk Talk talk with zero action and zero results. If only Zambians should send him back to cattle heading where he belongs.
Thats a bit drastic
but a replacement for sure
Says the privatization thief.
There is a 3 bed fully furnished house from HH as promised if anyone in the whole world can prove that…….
FWD2031
A three bedroom haunted house? Naaa! You can keep it.
Kagame ‘inherited’ a country emerging from war…he dealt decisively with the so called donor community at one point he asked them to park their 4X4s and leave. He tightened security such that the country is low on crime, he fought corruption…assets declaration is law for all government officials and elected officials…he led the war against dirt country wide today its one of the cleanest countries in the world….he didn’t ask local government to take the lead…he introduced discipline no tack tack….so stop pointing to debt burden…just get our act together and not waste time trying to increase MPS to further burden the poor tax payer.
If we cannot take baby steps towards that in all sectors then we will never be near that. Opportunities need to go to Zambians and the mechanism should be deliberate. Those sitting in government offices at all levels need to have their minds transformed because they are ones resisting this need. They have to actualise the President’s message and there’s need to expose their resistance by innovative, creative and hard working Zambians.
A three bedroomed haunted house? Naaa! You can keep it.