The Continental Leadership Research Institute Director Mundia Hakoola says there is need for more young people to take up leadership roles.

Mr. Hakoola said the number of youths in leadership positions is low in Zambia hence the need for youths to be trained in various leadership roles.

Mr. Hakoola told ZANIS in an interview in Ndola yesterday that the Research Institute is training young people from all political parties and the community in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces.

He explained that youths in the country are mostly used as tools of violence instead of taking up leadership roles.

“We are a platform that engage youths in issues of governance and leadership to ensure that we build their capacity in taking up leadership roles by reducing the trend of young people being used as tools of violence,” he said.

He added that the trainings are aimed at enhancing capacity of young people to participate in democratic processes by varying for public office.

“Currently from our research conducted, we have seen that out of the total 156 members of Parliament, only three are considered as youths.

Therefore, we want to ensure that youths up their game in taking up leadership positions, the importance of taking part in voting and issues of how to deal with dialogue.

You find that most of the time youths do not dialogue but engage in violent activities, that is why we are undertaking trainings for them to ensure that they know their core duty in governance issues,” he said.

And Lumuno Nyimba one of the trained youths from Ndola said the training has enlightened them on how to be responsible as young people.

“As youths, we have been very relaxed in terms of taking up leadership roles because we limit our capacity and what we can do. Hence the training has really opened up our thinking and we will be more proactive in dealing with governance issues,” she said.

She added that youth participation in leadership roles will help the country move forward as they have a lot of potential.

Ezra Mushipi another trained participate said youths have huge role to play in issues of governance.

He thanked research institute for training them and explained that he will use the information to be models of change.

He called on all the youths in the country not to be used as tools of violence even as the country heads to the polls next year.

The government will not extend the mobile issuance of the National Registration Cards(NRC)s.

Vice President Inonge Wina has advised all citizens that failed to obtain National Registration Cards -NRCs- during the mobile issuance exercise to visit the department of national registration cards in their respective districts.

She says the issuance of NRCs continues at district offices even after the mobile exercise has come to an end.

Mrs. Wina said this during the Vice President’s Question time in Parliament today.

This was in response to a question by Mitete Member of Parliament Misheck Mutelo who wanted to know whether officers will return to Mitete district for the issuance of mobile NRCs.

The Vice President said parliamentarians should advise people in their constituencies to visit the district offices where issuance of NRCs is conducted so that they can obtain the identity document.

And responding to Zambezi East Member of Parliament Brian Kambita who wanted to know how the Government plans to manage the mobile voter registration following complaints that the mobile issuance of NRCs was unfairly handled, Mrs. Wina said no one was denie
access to acquire an NRC in any of the centres during the exercise.

The Vice President further said the teams that conducted the mobile issuance have done a good job.

Mrs Wina further said the minister of Home affairs will update Parliament on how many people obtained NRCs during the mobile issuance exercise.

THE RULING Patriotic Front (PF) has congratulated its Party Secretary General Hon Davies Mwila for obtaining his Bachelor of Science in Project Management with a Credit.

PF Deputy Secretary General Mrs Mumbi Phiri has described Hon Mwila’s academic achievement as one that will inspire other members of the ruling party to consider furthering their studies.

“We are proud as PF Secretariat to have been party of your academic journey and success. I recall the days you would be overwhelmed with home work from School and how it would equally drown our mood here at work. And also how you would celebrate for submitting your assignments in time. We have cherished those moments with you and are now proud to congratulate you on attaining this Degree,” said Mrs Phiri.

The Deputy Secretary General further said if the ruling party CEO can dedicate time and resources towards education off his extremely busy schedule, then no youth should fail to advance their education on the pretext of not having adequate time to study.

First Lady Esther Lungu has encouraged women to maximize their potential for the attainment of household and national development.

The First Lady was speaking in Mambwe when she held an entrepreneurship symposium with women church groups where she empowered them with a total of K50, 000.

Mrs Lungu said Mambwe district is the second after Katete to have benefitted from the Church based women empowerment program which is being piloted in the province under the Esther Lungu Foundation Trust.

She has challenged the women to work hard and multiply the empowerment funds for the growth of the church and the country at large.

“I have piloted this program to enable me work with you our mothers in churches. Let us commit and remain focused so that we empower ourselves and have a positive impact on the development of our nation,” she said.

Mrs Lungu added that women are agents of change and can ascend to greater heights once they commit themselves.

The First Lady also took time to encourage the women with the word of God.

“God answers prayers so I encourage you to commit your hard work to Christ so that he blesses and multiplies the works of your hands”, she said.

The gathering that was characterized by prayer and worship, saw the ten different church groups go away with K5, 000 each.

A representative of the women from the Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ), Joy Mwale thanked the First Lady for the empowerment.

Ms. Mwale said the funds will go a long way in the implementation of projects the different women groups have and intend to embark on.

“As RCZ, we have a project to construct a house to respond to the accommodation challenge the district is faced with but we only had K1, 000 in our coffers. So these funds you have given us will make a difference as we can now say we have K6,000 towards the project,” she explained.

The gathering was also attended by the Area Member of Parliament (MP) Makebi Zulu who is also the Provincial Minister.

He encouraged the women to always do the best and commit their work to God.

“God has been answering our prayers as a nation. He has come through whenever our country has been hit by dire situations we have always managed to conquer. This is because we are a nation that loves God,” he said.

Mr. Zulu thanked the First Lady for the numerous empowerment programs being implemented in the province and Malambo constituency in particular.