The Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles (ZCMT) which was closed in 2008 will be re-opened before the end of this year.

Defence Minister, Kalombo Mwansa told parliament yesterday that the re-opening of the textile in Kabwe will create over 1,000 jobs for the local people.

He said government is in talks with China to see how much the two countries that are joint owners of the textile company will each contribute as working capital for the operations of the company.

He said government is also thinking of taking a majority share holding in the company to have major control of the company and avoid closures in future.

Dr. Mwansa said government is through the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) also looking for a third partner to acquire the shares in the plant to reduce the percentage ownership by the two countries

He said the government will also ensure that the textile acquires the state of the art technology and produce products that will penetrate the international market.

Dr. Mwansa said this in response to Kanchibiya Member of Parliament Davies Mwango who wanted to know when the Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles in Kabwe will be re-opened.

He further disclosed that the partner pulled out of the company because the company was not making profits and that the machines were obsolete.

The Textile which was closed in 2008 is jointly owned by China and Zambia who have 66 percent and 34 percentage share holding respectively.

ZANIS

THE board of directors of Finance Bank Zambia Limited has voluntarily dissolved itself in order to facilitate for the restructuring process.

Finance Bank Zambia Limited board chairman Jacob Mwanza announced this in a statement released in Lusaka yesterday.

Dr Mwanza said the decision was made during a meeting held yesterday.

“Following the restructuring of the shareholding in Finance Bank Zambia Limited, the constitution of the board of directors of Finance Bank Zambia Limited will consequently change to suit the new shareholding,” he said.

Dr Mwanza thanked the retiring board in their individual capacities and collectively for the valued contributions made in developing the bank.

He observed that Finance Bank is one of the fastest growing banks in Zambia and this is also owing to the leadership provided by the retiring board of directors.

Dr Mwanza hoped that the retiring directors will make themselves available to the shareholders if called upon to render further service to the bank.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

The interest-free loan had a grace period of 10 years, implying that the country was due to start paying back the principal amount in instalments beginning next year over a period of 20 years.

Acting Minister of Finance and National Planning Peter Daka and Belgium ambassador to Zambia Paul Jansen made the announcement after signing the debt cancellation protocol in Lusaka yesterday.

Mr Daka said at the ceremony that the cancellation of the debt is evidence of Belgium’s commitment to foster economic development in developing countries like Zambia.

“This occasion no doubt brings back to our minds memories of how efforts by the international community drastically reduced Zambia’s sovereign external debt to manageable levels upon reaching the completion point in 2005.

“ The gesture shown today by your Government to cancel all outstanding amounts due on the loan provided to Government in 2000 amounting to K34 billion is evidence of Belgium’s commitment to foster economic development in countries like Zambia,” Mr Daka said.

He said the cancellation of the debt means Government will not have to allocate resources in the budget for the repayment of the loan.

Mr Daka said the present stock of debt, which stands at over US$1 billion, will automatically be reduced by the amount cancelled.

He said the debt relief will allow the country to channel resources to other areas of development such as the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“What Belgium has done today is a clear testimony of confidence and trust that you have in our economy .This ceremony signifies that you have given credit to economic management of the country,” Mr Daka said.

He said Government has put emphasis on effective public resource management to ensure that the desired benefits of economic development are realised.

Mr Daka said Government believes that as long as there is no commitment to prudent use of public resources, the benefits of debt relief will not be realised by the masses.

“Government has thus been embarking on the implementation of the public debt reform programme, which among others, includes the implementation of a debt strategy which will ensure that debt is contracted at low cost and minimum risk to maintain sustainable levels of sovereign debt which will prevent the country from falling back into the debt trap,” he said.

Mr Daka appealed to other countries which have pledged to provide debt relief to Zambia under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) framework to emulate Belgium and follow through with their commitments.

And Mr Jansen said the written-off debt is under the agreement of the HIPC initiative.

Mr Jansen said the Belgian Government had made a commitment to cancel debt of countries which have reached the HIPC completion point.

He said his Government believes Zambia is on the right path of economic recovery hence the cancellation of the debt.

Mr Jansen said his country is pleased to cancel the debt as the country has shown positive signs of economic recovery.

He said Belgium will keep its commitment of writing off debt despite Europe having not been spared by the global economic crisis.

“Despite the challenges that we are facing as Belgium, we will stand by our commitments of writing off debt of countries that have reached HIPC completion point,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Libya’s LAP Green Networks is one step closer to making its final bid for a 75% stake in Zamtel, the Zambian government-owned telecom operator.

The Lybian operator will compete alongside Angola’s Unitel/Angola Cables, Russia’s Altimo Holdings/VimpelCom and Bharat Sanchar Nigam of India, to acquire a majority stake in Zamtel.

Zambia’s mobile penetration is around 33% in a population of 12,2 million people. With only 200 000 subscribers, Zamtel has been lagging behind rivals Zain and MTN.
Zain Zambia has 2.3 million subscribers, which translates to a massive 75% market share.

Moreover, the Zambian operator carries a debt burden of $125 million and an annual operating deficit of $17 million.

“We know it’s indebted, but those things can be sorted out”, commented LAP Green chief commercial officer, Hans Paulsen.

LAP Green Network owns 62% of Uganda Telecom and has recently bought 80% of Sudanese operator Gemtel. Besides Zamtel, the operator eyes stakes in Rwandatel of Rwanda, Sonitel and Sahelcom of Niger and Cote D’Ivoire and Ambitel GreenN of Sierra Leone.

[IT News Africa]

By contrast, if the EU does not back their case, they threatened to oppose Europe’s proposal to ban trade in the giant fish.

A nine-year ban on ivory sales was agreed in 2007 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but two African nations — Tanzania and Zambia — want to reclassify their elephant populations, as a first step to resuming the trade, a leaked letter from the 23 countries says.

The group of African countries, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria, are concerned that most EU countries support Tanzania and Zambia’s attempts to restart the ivory trade, the letter says.

EU ambassadors met on Friday to finalise the bloc’s position at the next CITES meeting which starts on March 13.

The diplomats are expected to confirm support for an endangered listing for the Atlantic bluefin, which would effectively ban trade in the endangered fish which can fetch up to $100,000 each at market.

“Please do not force our collective hand to cast our 23 votes against the EU on any of the issues it is supporting such as, for example, the high profile proposed ban on bluefin tuna,” said the letter seen by Reuters.

After lengthy talks on Friday morning on bluefin tuna, ivory and polar bears, the bloc could struggle to reach a unified position by March 13, an EU source said.

Poachers in many central and west African countries continue to kill elephants for their ivory, which is used for trinkets and also as an aphrodisiac in countries such as China. The legal ivory trade fuels and provides cover for unlawful sales, the 23 African countries argue.

BRUSSELS (Reuters)

This, according to outgoing Bifm CEO Victor Senye, will be done to comply with new legislation in Zambia that requires all asset management companies in the country to be at least 51 percent owned by Zambian citizens.

Speaking at the presentation of the results of parent company BIHL in Gaborone this week, Senye said they were in the process of identifying potential buyers of the stake and that priority would be given to current shareholders.

“The cutting down of our stake is one of the challenges that Bifm is facing at the moment,” he said. “We will try to compensate for the loss by fortifying that area of our business that has not been affected by the new legislation in Zambia.”

Apart from asset management, the BIHL group is into employee benefits and property development in Zambia.

Meanwhile, though he did not specify profit margins, Senye said Bifm had performed exceptionally well for the year ended December 31, 2009 after taking a sharp knock in 2008 as global financial markets collapsed.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to build on our achievements and focus on our key strategies of growth and profitability,” he said. “Our property activities have been extremely valuable and have enabled the company to take a leading role in the market.

“But while we are entrenched as a major property player in Botswana, our core business continues to be asset management.”

While Bifm reported profits at the same level as 2006, another member of the BIHL conglomerate, Botswana Life, reported a 45-percent increase in profits despite a difficult operating environment that was characterised by weakened disposable incomes for their clients.

Meanwhile, Botswana Life, whose CEO Regina Sikalesele-Vaka has just been rewarded with the plumb BIHL group CEO post, reported a 31-percent increase in net insurance premium income to P1.3 billion for the period, registering an operating profit of P218 million.

“We made excellent progress in the implementation of the Botswana Life 2009-2013 strategy,” she said. “This strategy has three key focus areas, namely, consolidation and retention of key clients, expansion and diversification.

I am proud to say that Botswana Life has succeeded in retaining all its major corporate clients as well as significantly increasing its individual sales business. Our results give us a justified cause for satisfaction.” As part of the group’s new strategy to maintain its dominance in the market, BIHL have announced a single substantive group CEO, Sikalesele-Vaka, who will oversee its five new subsidiaries that will embrace unit trusts and specific property and short-term insurance divisions in addition to Botswana Life and Bifm.

Until now, Senye and Sikalesele-Vaka were joint CEOs for BIHL. While Senye is being redeployed to head the property division, BIHL chairperson Batsho Dambe-Groth says the new heads of the other four divisions will be announced in the near future.

[MMEGI]