GOVERNMENT has commended Dunavant Zambia Limited (DZL) for setting up an oil plant in Katete.
The move is a good example of creating employment for the Zambian people both on permanent and seasonal arrangements.
Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister, Felix Mutati said during the official opening of a multi-million Katete Oil Plant in Katete on Friday that the Government was equally happy that the company also had a strong policy on HIV/AIDS for its workers.
Mr Mutati said he was confident the opening of the oil plant would create extra jobs for the people of Katete and the entire Eastern Province.
He requested Dunavant to encourage investors to enter into partnerships that could further provide employment opportunities to many of the rural people.
“The establishment of the processing industries would reduce the large proportion of the fuzzy-seed which is being exported in raw form,” the minister said.
He thanked Dunavant for promoting rural development in Zambia but urged the company to pay cotton farmers handsomely.
“Dunavant is a true example of diversification. I thank you people of Katete for working with Dunavant and the Government,” Mr Mutati said.
He said small-scale farmers could increase their agriculture production by mechanising their farming activities.
In order to create a conducive environment for farmers to grow more crops, Government had this year allocated K30 billion for infrastructure development in Katete District alone.
The money would be used for infrastructure development in the district, including roads and other infrastructure in the health and education sectors.
The Government would also strengthen the Cotton Board of Zambia to ensure that it effectively addressed challenges that hindered the growth of the cotton industry in Zambia.
Dunavant managing director Nigel Seabrook said the plant would bring a lot of pride to the people of Katete by adding value through employment creation in the area.
Mr Seabrook said the oil mill had an annual capacity of 14,000 tonnes of fuzzy seeds that yielded 1.8 million litres of edible oil.
He said there was need for increased cotton production in the province to ensure that the oil mill had enough raw materials.
And Eastern Province Permanent Secretary Eularia Syamujaye said Dunavant was a reliable partner in the cotton industry in the province.
She said the firm had been running out-grower schemes to support its small-scale farmers with cotton inputs for many years.
”I will be failing in my duty Mr minister if I did not mention briefly the 2009/10 farming season. The Government under the farmer input support programme (FISP) supported more than 104,000 of which Katete had 17,680 farmers,” she said.
She was aware that cotton had become a major cash crop in Katete.
[Times of Zambia]
Good, now can all suppliers and distributors consult with Dunavant Zambia Limited on how they can do business with them instead of causing anarchy with this red card movement. Here is an opportunity for you.
Some bloggers here (more especially those based in Germany and the UK) can also help the industry grow by providing micro-finance loans to small scale cotton farmers. You can do this by first targeting how much you plan to invest (say $100,000), state an interest rate (since inflation is at 9.8%, the interest rate can be set at 11%), and create a pool of funds by dividing up this investment into smaller investments of lets say $100 each (at 11% interest) and sell them to the bloggers here based in Germany and the UK. Congrats, you have done something for Zambia :d
Bravo! Some positive news for a change. No 1 Capitalist, that is an interesting suggestion.
Yeah great move> I would love to see more of such projects spread accross the country preferable owned by indegenous zambians
The problem is that in most cases the government is keeping the nation’s money in some foreigner’s bank & denying locals access to funding. You can’t compare national money with our individual savings from a regular job. That is why government must be in the forefront creating facilities like the micro-finance. What is happening now is that micro-finance exist everywhere (run by ‘sharks’) but the cost of borrowing is even higher than commercial banks.
Oh… there we go again. Is this really news to get you people over excited. Listen in Kenya there are over 24 cotton ginneries, in Tanzania over 35 and Uganda over 20 and all those process cotton from seed cotton, then process oil from cotton seed, then produce soap from what remains after oil processing, then produce animal feeds from what remains from producing soap. In-fact from cotton processing you don’t throw anything, nothing is left over. And most of those ginneries in E.Africa are owned by the indigenous people. Its good news yes but in most of these things(development) we are lurking behind by more than 10 years or so. The problem with most of you Zambians is that you get excited by little things so much so that you loose the vision of where we are suppose to be or heading to.