Understanding Kaizen Productivity Model: Tips for Youths

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Private sector driven economies are increasingly relying on the private sector and strategic institutions’ innovativeness to stimulate desired economic growth and development. Globally, countries are faced with the challenge of narrowing the gap between ideal (desired) and actual economic development. Economic policy makers from Europe to America to Asia and Africa are facing difficulties in applying strategies that facilitate continuous improved productivity and quality control to realise lasting prosperity and improved livelihood of the citizenry.

Despite the above challenges, Japan has often found a way of floating-over those economic blizzards. The country has continued to innovate to improve the rate of its productivity, technological progression as well as economic growth and development. The strategic success of Japan is as a result of a number of factors that combined together created positive conditions for actualising desired economic development. These factors are mostly anchored on the KAIZEN concept.

Kaizen is a Japanese term derived from Kai which means “continuous” and zen meaning “improvement”. It also refers to “change” for the “good.” It simply means "continuous improvement". It was created in Japan during the country’s reconstruction period following World War II. The philosophy is defined as making “continuous improvement”—slow, incremental but constant. It means doing it better, and making it better in all areas of life.

The concept involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. It is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. The philosophy is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, product quality, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing because Kaizen is about making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. “The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, and improve it even if it is not broken, because if we do not, we cannot compete with those who do," says concept coach in Zambia Mr. Nobuyuki Ogiso. Mr. Ogiso said kaizen is about improvement that includes both home and business life. It involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. It also involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain employees’ ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.

The concept has been adopted by many countries and has spread globally and recently reached Africa. In 2008, Zambia Association Manufacturers (ZAM) adopted the concept to stimulate efficiency, innovation, improved service delivery and good management skills among its members and auxiliary sectors in order to achieve the necessary economic growth and development in the country. The association has extended the opportunity to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to enable them learn business efficiency and graduate into big businesses thus imparting greatly on the domestic economy. ZAM opened an MSE desk through which they (MSEs) could access the kaizen coaching-ups by the architects of the philosophy.

Kaizen brings a lot of hope to Zambia as it creates platforms through which effective analysis of productivity of each business becomes a trademark of the whole workforce, said ZAM CEO Roseta Mwape. The concept approach is paramount to national development and business management especially that most companies become pre-occupied with increasing productivity and deriving good returns at the expense of key pre-requisites for business efficiency such as safety, customer care and cleanliness among others, she added. Manufacturers are adopting kaizen to change the economic players’ mindsets, particularly manufacturers and MSEs to ensure overhaul improved efficiency to stimulate substantial domestic economic growth and development as well as product and service competitiveness in the region.

“Kaizen encourages value addition and use of scientific methods in production, monitoring and evaluation of production capacities of every entity,” says ZAM chairperson Mr. Chance Kabaghe. “It is about the core of an entity’s existence.” It promotes the creation of effective analysis systems that facilitate planning ahead of business/production challenges. It promotes quality control and production efficiency through continuous cleaning up of any ‘garbage’ in the system. Quality control is critical for any economy, something Zambia Development Agency champions in its export promotion and marketing missions to ensure quality standards are met by all exporters. The concept is valuable to the Agency’s mandates on promoting quality.

Companies that have integrated kaizen into their systems have ripped utmost profits from its insight. Zamshu general manager Richard Franklin said through the kaizen concept, the company managed to reduce the levels of shoe damages from 0.8 percent to 0.025 per cent per month. Zamshu improved its quality controlling system, increased production and reduced on wastage levels after the blending of kaizen initiatives in its operations. The concept also strengthened the company’s team work spirit.

Several economic benefits are foreseen from kaizen. The benefits are presumed in all sectors of the economy especially that the philosophy enhances improved production capabilities as well as market evaluation and monitoring. Most Zambian companies are expected to learn timely monitoring skills of business risks and integrate production methods that benchmarks international demands and maintain affluent returns from their business. Other returns will include improved business attitudes, safety, customer care, and other assortments that can help Zambia meet the set global product standards and then continually improving on them.

Being that kaizen involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis, Zambia Development Agency’s product quality challenges among its exporters may be narrowed. Producers will learn to do the right thing at the right time and take advantage of market offers prudently. Currently, ZAM is facilitating the trainings on kaizen with the help from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). ZAM is however, spreading Kaizen to other sectors especially agriculture, which could be pillar of growth for the manufacturing sector and other sectors. With Kaizen, it is presumed Zambia will become a haven of knowledge-based business and a well-groomed economic development base.

Zambia’s Diaspora Connect Strategy: Something for Youths to Know

By Clive Mutame Siachiyako
Today’s constantly changing business and economic environments require development strategies that embrace both the breadth and depth of those dynamics to strength national development. However, the velocity at which the changes are moving has caught many economies off-guard. This has often been exasperated by some policy oversight.

Similarly, Zambians working abroad have been seen in terms of brain drain for decades. As a result, their contributions to national development have been overlooked and unrecognised. The added value in terms of insights, knowledge of local conditions and networks, cultural experience, empathy and sensitiveness, intellectual capacities and skills that they gain and subsequently could offer to the enrichment of the Zambian economy has been thus relatively substantial.

However, with the passing of the clause on dual citizenship by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC), government has tasked Zambia Development Agency and other relevant institutions to formulate a national framework to the engage Zambians living abroad to contribute to national development. Government plans to engage its nationals abroad in monitoring investment dynamics and help in promoting Zambia’s investment opportunities.

Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) was last year tasked to initiate the development of the concept paper that would be used to secure public support for the initiative of engaging the Diaspora to national development through remittance and shaping the development direction of the country based on their gained exposure to best development practices.

The formulation of the policy in being done in collaboration with the Bank of Zambia, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology. The role of the Bank of Zambia is to develop an effective remittance system to create a pool of diaspora-driven national capital. The policy also mandates Ministry of Finance and National Planning to review the taxation system and address the diaspora requirements.

Government further created a Diaspora Desk at State House. The Desk facilitated the creation of a Zambia Diaspora Connect Initiative. The initiative provides a “one stop” station for members of the diaspora in interfacing with government and other entities back in Zambia over issues specific to national development. The window provides institutional capacity to Zambians abroad by bringing them together and collective contribute their proficiency to economic development.

To this effect, Zambians abroad have formed a Zambia Diaspora Connect (ZDC) Business network which presents Zambian economic interests at the World Bank’s African Diaspora Open House. ZDC Chairman Mr. Musaba Chailunga has indicated that one of the objectives of African Diaspora Open House and ZDC were to initiate projects that could be driven back home to ignite economic growth. It helps individual Zambians in the diaspora to identify roles they can play in enhancing Zambia’s development.

As part of the ZDC’s initiative to help close the skills gap between the decision makers in Zambia, be it government and/or Business, it will be offering a series of training courses on explorative tools for monitoring investment dynamics on the international frontier. The training initiatives are composed of the Human Capital Thematic Group, whose main role is to provide resources that can be drawn upon for policy advisory and consultancy.

Back in Zambia, institutions facilitating the engagement Zambians abroad into national development are repositioning themselves on how to develop systems that meet the diaspora dimension. They have proposed a framework which is being facilitated by the Bank of Zambia, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology. The role of the Bank of Zambia is developing an effective remittance system, while the ministry finance is tasked to review the taxation system to address the diaspora requirement and prepare booklets on such taxation system for distribution through various networks.

Under that framework, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is mandated to educate Zambians living abroad on what this initiative is all about and to encourage them to save with banks in Zambia. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology on the other strand are addressing their training systems to include training for the international labour market in order to enhance the effectiveness of the diaspora policy initiative.

The diaspora development framework initiative is necessitated by the ZDC members who have been inquiring on how they can facilitate the exploitation of Zambia’s investment opportunities in the country. The initiative has been also dictated by economic dynamics which demand inclusive development approaches to meet the daunting poverty levels and development challenges.
Most African governments have realised the massive economic potential their citizens abroad possess. The framework is thus one way of engaging Zambians in the diaspora to take part in national development matters and encourage them to invest back home.

Planning and Policy manager for ZDA, Mr. Chola Mwitwa said the Diaspora Policy Framework included a Diaspora Bond, through which remittance money could be invested in specific projects. This strategy is meant to improve infrastructure development and broadening the country’s revenue base. Its net economic benefits will be more job opportunities and wealth creation and meaningful poverty reduction.

The ZDA diaspora concept paper notes that Zambians living abroad are important partners in the development process. “They are numerous and many of them are highly skilled. Some have capital to invest which can diffused into the national economy stimulate economic growth once the policy is effected.

Zambians abroad are part of a large-scale, worldwide diaspora or transnational community which is becoming one of the major global forces in shaping economic directions and trends in the 21st century. They have often influenced Western and Eastern government policy-makers in their strategies and activities implemented towards the country.

The Zambian diaspora build-up social, economic and political bridges that channel wealth, information, innovative ideas, intellectual capacities, skills and creative business practices from America, Europe and Asia. This is the highly-skilled resource the diaspora policy aims to tap to enhance national development. Such skills are cardinal to the enhancement of investment and export promotion and market development strategies for Zambia.

Research has shown that diaspora contribution to development in homelands is second to FDI in countries where there are effective systems integrated the diaspora into national development. Thus, joining forces with the diaspora in championing development is an important ingredient to meeting national development targets that the ZDA and partners are blending into economic development.

Therefore, as young people, we should remember to plant back home. Let's invest to create our own greener pasture back home.

Youths at the Afore:Economic Recovery through Innovation and Competitiveness

By Clive Siachiyako

Globally, economies are working-out smarter ways of completely eliminate effects of the recent economic recession and gear-up for economic recovery. They are finding ways of applying institutional changes inherent to innovation and competitiveness to stimulate productivity, economic development and long term improved livelihood for citizens.

Economic trends show that innovation is a foundation for competitiveness, industrial and technological upgrading, balancing economic growth with wealth redistribution and effective provision of essential public goods and services. Innovation helps countries deal with structural changes in their economies and enable them respond to external challenges better.

Innovation is about the production, diffusion and use of new and economically useful knowledge. It is about creating domains for identifying and nurturing enterprising faculties and building globally competitive national economies. Innovation is a base for competitiveness. It is a back-borne for formulating institutions, policies and factors that determine sustainable productivity levels in an economy.

Determined to promote innovation and competitiveness, Zambia is pursuing comprehensive economic reforms that led to the establishment of Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and other key institutions and programmes like the Private Sector Development Programme, to pioneer and facilitate private sector led economic development.

To re-emphases its determination to enhance innovation and competitiveness, this year’s Zambia International Trade Fair (ZITF) is anchored on: “Economic Recovery through Innovation and Competitiveness.” The theme conforms well to ZDA’s initiatives that promote and support innovation and competitiveness through research, market development, establishing economic zones, and micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSME) development via business linkages, training and business voucher programme.

Through research, ZDA provides essential information on market offers for Zambian products and investor perceptions on the business climate in the country, including pledged investment implementation. Information on investor perceptions is vital in designing investor friendly policies that consolidate domestic and foreign investment. The information helps the country determine the magnitude, source and direction of private capital flows and stocks.

Such information is also key for domestic and external policy formulation, evaluation and complementing the country’s fiscal and monetary policies to bring overall macroeconomic stability. It improves the compilation of national statistics, which serve as an early warning system for preventing external shocks such as the recent world economic crisis. These proactive measures are essential for economic competitiveness and reliability.

To provide updated information on investment, ZDA monitors pledged investment actualisation in the country. Currently, 195 companies with investment licences have been monitored out of 700 companies with licences. These companies pledged US $ 1.3 billion investment and 14 000 jobs. US$624 million of that investment has been actualised, resulting into 9 500 local jobs, representing 47 percent implementation rate.

The monitoring process helps ZDA ascertain whether an investor invested the pledged amount, employed the pledged number of people or failed to implement the project and reasons for failure. Information on skills sharing, training for employees and other savvy transfer mechanisms is also acquired for determining how much innovation is assimilated in the domestic economy to improve productivity and service delivery.

The ZDA further research on market offers for Zambian products and foreign market offers. Since information is the premium of today’s knowledge driven economies, ZDA equips exporters and importers with pertinent information for identifying ripe markets for their products. It also helps importers easily tap necessary imports miles away.

Beyond investment and trade, ZDA facilitates business linkages between MSMEs and transnational corporations (TNCs). Business linkages provide demand led business solutions for both TNCs and MSMEs. They provide MSMEs an opportunity to upgrade their technologies, business practices and technical skills and ultimately become more productive and competitive.

Currently, ZDA and cooperating partners such as the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, have facilitated four business linkages between MSMEs and TNCs. The four are between Zambia Breweries, Taj Pamodzi Hotel, TATA Tannery and Picky n Pay Group, with various MSMEs in similar businesses with these TNCs.

To foster entrepreneurship in the country, ZDA trains MSMEs in business and financial management, effective preparation of balancing sheets and prudent costing and pricing. Since entrepreneurs are pulled (model after parents/ friends) and pushed (circumstantial entrepreneurs), the ZDA initiatives for MSMEs are aimed at creating a pool of entrepreneurs that can innovatively earn a positive cash flow backed by sound business systems and processes.

With its mission statement combining investment and trade promotion, MSME development, competitiveness and innovation, ZDA also facilitates the establishment of multi-facility economic zones (MFEZs) to catalyse industrialisation and value addition to Zambian products to boost their competitiveness locally and abroad.

MFEZs are fundamental factors to rapid and sustainable economic development. They are a base for sustainable prosperity and making an economy more competitive, which Zambia aims to use to create value-addition bases and implant high spirited small and medium scale entrepreneurs in them to increase the economy’s competitiveness and innovation levels.
The ZDA considers the extent and quality of entrepreneurship available in Zambia as an important matter for innovativeness, since entrepreneurs play the role of originators and coordinators of innovative activities. Thus, creating enabling conditions that promote small and medium entrepreneurs has the potential to increase innovation activities and more effective innovation. It can make Zambian products very competitive and the general economy more viable and most rewarding.

With the current status Zambia has earned in most global rankings such as the World Competitiveness Report, Ease of Doing Business, Technology Readiness Ranking, and Ease and Access to Credit, ZDA is hopeful that the combination of the country business reforms will make the economy more competitive to capital, thus becoming a hub for innovation, job and wealth creation and sustainable development.

The ZITF’s theme: “Economic Recovery through Innovation and Competitiveness” has set the mood for enhanced competitiveness and innovation to speedup economic recovery and gear-up for sustainable economic growth and development. With combined efforts, Zambia can gain more. Visit ZDA at the ZITF and learn more on how to get the right support to enable your business grow to its full potential and increase its economic contribution.

SMEs: India’s Economic Heroes, Lessons for Zambian Youths

By Clive M. Siachiyako
For all its current economic strength, India remains a beacon of small and medium entrepreneurialism. Indian entrepreneurs are making waves across the world. Its micro, small and medium business firms are making acquisitions abroad and spreading their tentacles in various corners of the globe. They have flourished under globalisation and have proved all doomsday prophecies wrong.

Thus, India’s economy has been one of the stars of global economics in recent years mainly due to its robust SME sector. With its growth being supported by market reforms, rising foreign exchange reserves, both an information telecommunications (IT) and real estate boom, and a flourishing domestic direct investment (DDI) and capital market, India offers rewarding economic lessons to Zambia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector.

According to the 2009 Economist Report on entrepreneurship, India is the ninth in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey of entrepreneurial countries. It is the highest among 28 countries in Necessity Based Entrepreneurship, while second among all nations in Total Entrepreneurship Activity. The country has been registering about US$3.6 billion annually from the ICT sector alone from SMEs prior to the economic crisis. The mobbed SME heroes of India were transforming small start-ups into global giants every year. They created business minded societies in several Indian cities by engaging in a frenzy of networking through partnerships and joint ventures.

India improved the growth of the SME sector after liberalising the economy in the 1990s by linking education and the industry. The country’s universities/colleges became its economic engines with proliferating science parks, technology offices, business incubators and venture funds. This helped to create a business minded class of graduates. The tradition entrepreneurship dates-back to basic and high schools in India. The trend has significantly boosted India’s DDI profile.

The country’s higher education system has also been designed to discover and develop first-class entrepreneurial skills. The system does not only inspire graduates to strike it rich, but to play their part in forging a new India with a double-digit economic and GDP growth and low levels of poverty. And through linking the education system to the industry, India began to reverse the brain drain. The country’s prodigal children were summoned home by economic offers of the native soil. For instance, from 2003-2005, some 5,000 industrious Indians returned home from America. They trekked home to kick-start the country’s entrepreneurial economy and increase the DDI flow.

These Indian transplants from the Diaspora promoted SME growth through mentoring, networking and education. Today their network has 12, 000 members and operates in 53 cities in 12 countries. The transplants helped to fill some of the skills gaps created by India’s recent boom. They also reinforced the country’s existing links with high-tech countries in the West like America and in Europe.

The Indian SME sector growth model offers various fundamental lessons for Zambia’s MSME sector. The linking of the education system to the industry is essential to the ZDA, TEVETA and ministry of education strategies meant to strengthen entrepreneurship levels in the country. By collaborating with human resource training institutions, citizens will obtain an entrepreneurship spirit and learn the art of sustaining business at the appropriate age. They will thus grow up with an entrepreneurial mindset. Such a phenomenon can result into a knowledge-based economy, where the use of knowledge is the main driver of growth, wealth creation and employment across all sectors without much dependency on foreign investors.

Picking it from the Indian model, several skills training institutions under TEVETA, government run colleges and universities and those in the private hands can be a haven of entrepreneurial savvy and breeding grounds for businesses. The public-private partnership initiative can be a hallmark of linking the education system to the industry beyond public educational institutions. Business incubator programmes can be rooted into these institutions to blend business mindsets in students at the right time. The trend can descend further to basic schools and high schools in order to overhaul the Zambian mindset towards business. The strategy is paramount in enhancing government’s numerous programmes meant to meet long term developmental goals of attaining middle income status by 2030 among others.

Information telecommunications (ICT) is another significant parametre Zambia can tap from the India SME growth model to improve MSMEs’ business prowess. India’s enterprising heroes like Azim Premji transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil company into a software giant. After liberalising the ICT sector, many Indian SMEs ventured into the sector. The cost of doing business equally reduced drastically. Internet use, calling rates and other related expenses fall. The sector became a lucrative business web.

With the ICT policy in place and other initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure, MSMEs can achieve and contribute greatly to the economy. Strategies such as multi-facility economic zones (MFEZ) meant to have necessary infrastructure in place for improved productivity can help transform dormant small enterprises into economic giants. Grounding MSMEs with competencies on how to utilise ICT to improve business efficiency is key in developing and discovering first-class MSMEs that can creating a strong buffer zone for the local economy. The current business reforms government is implementing fits well in promoting the MSME sector and the local economy as a whole.

The MFEZ initiative can help create a pool of MSMEs in various businesses. Various networks can sprout from these zones and help to uproot start-ups by providing them with key information on market offers and other business etiquettes. The start-ups can be both supplies and part of the global supply chains. With business linkage and joint venture initiatives already in place under the ZDA, Zambia can easily propel its DDI flow to supplement FDI. The net effect of such a combination will be increased economic growth, job and wealth creation as well as poverty reduction.

With well watched pace and coordinated policy strategies, Zambia can realise many new entrepreneurs onto the business sphere. The entrepreneurial spirit will begin to breathe new life into Zambia’s public and private sector and greatly revolve the economy. Zambians in the Diaspora will see the need to invest back home and translate Western ideas into local ideologies, combining them with acquired technological advances to drive economic growth. With such an economic atmosphere, Zambia, like India will be hopeful of having a brighter economic future.

Youths and Fashion: Villains or Victims?

By Clive Siachiyako

The phrase “what you wear defines you,” generates gloomy memories and uncertainties in many young fashion fanatics’ minds. It cuts great tension of irritation in the bones of these errand boys of trend-setters. It sounds like something belonging to the Stone Age. To them setting the trend defines everything. Trend-setting tosses these fanatics of fashion into a new life of ‘mind your own business.’ Old fashioned as it may be considered, some youths who claim they are obedient to the old folks’ words of “what you wear defines you” have often provoked nasty gossips. Taking a stroll in the corridors of the University of Zambia (UNZA), you will hear some students gossip about the kind of dressing some of their fellow students expose their eyes to see at the institution.
Different tastes may be? Or simply modernity? Students at UNZA take their freedom to wear what they want without parental comments to the max. Whereas others may call what they are wearing suggestive or gaudy, these fanatics call it chic. Truly, tastes vary, and students have the freedom to wear what they want, even with less care to nosy eyes or childish gestures. This however does not mean that ‘anything goes’ when it comes to how one dresses.
Some elders confirm that what you wear is really who you are and how you feel about yourself. They say clothing sends out a message, a serious statement about you. This simply means clothes can whisper neatness, stability or high moral standards. But in this era of fashion psychosis, some kind of clothing shouts rebellion and discontent. Some people are actually identified by their kind of clothes.
Spending time gazing into the colourful dress styles of UNZA students can prove to you that some students use ripped clothes, punk styles and expensive designer clothes as some kind of a trade mark. Others use their attire to attract the opposite sex or simply make themselves look much older than they could really be.
As the fashion designer and writer, John Molloy puts it; the way we dress has a remarkable impact on the people around us and greatly affects the way they treat us. Probably it is on this basis that parents often clash with their children over what they wear. But who takes that parental role when it comes to students, nature takes care of things. Parents struggle to guide children on what they wear so that they send right messages that project them as balanced and responsible parents.
Some students merely wear what their friends want them to wear to enable them look charming and germinate several ideas in the minds of their opposite sex. They reasonably clench the hearts of the other sex with a bittersweet mixture of pleasure and pain. Imbuing them sets a phenomenal sense of challenge. They are the bestiality of fashion.
Some youths however argue that they are tidy and methodic in the way they approach life. Many youths argue that what they wear is a statement of their independence and individuality. But some disciplinarians counsel that as a youth, your personality is still in a state of flux- still developing, still changing. So while you want to make a statement about yourself, you might not be too sure what that statement would be saying or how even to say it. This has led many youths to adorn themselves in bizarre and outrageous attire instead of establishing their ‘individuality.’ They are merely displaying their immaturity, even embarrassing their parents.
The emphasis on compliance has become so strong among the in-groups of youths to the extent that some of them have become prisoners of group norms. Over dependence on peers for advice on how to dress, how to talk, what to do, and even what to think and believe among the UNZA students is ruling the institution. What they fail to do is to gauge the level of qualification of their friends who give them that advice. Normally they suffer from the same emotional growing pains catching the trend.

Solutions for Unenterpreneurial Societies....Youths' Hope

Empretec for Entrepreneurship Growth

For decades, development structures of developing economies largely ignored the role of entrepreneurship in economic development and wealth creation. Zambia’s economic development structure for instance steepened towards attracting foreign investment mainly in mining and manufacturing sectors and support industries. But economic dynamics show that the ticket to faster and broader income growth is through entrepreneurial innovation. New economic systems put a premium on “adaptive efficiency,” which refers to the ability of institutions to innovate, continuously learn, and productively change. As markets fragment, technology accelerates and competition comes from unexpected places, learning, creativity, and adaptation have become the principal sources of competitive advantage in many industries. Enabling constant innovation needs to become the goal of all organisations committed to prospering. These efforts need to be proactive and designed for the long term. Government and business leaders need to challenge all economic sectors and institutions to become cultures of innovation. The consequences for any sector that does not respond to this challenge are low productivity, stagnant living standards, and reduced opportunity for its citizens, Empretec Zambia has noted.
Background of EmpretecEntrepreneur and Technology (Empretec) is a new programme in the Zambia. The programme is an integrated capacity-building programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and is coordinated by the Zambia Development Agency. The programme promotes the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It encourages the formation of mutually beneficial business linkages among SMEs and Trans-national Corporations (TNCs).

As a result, it contributes to the creation of a dynamic private sector and an open entrepreneurial culture. It is therefore a vital complement to effective macroeconomic policies and enabling legal and regulatory framework. The term Empretec is a Spanish acronym for emprendedores (entrepreneurs) and tecnologìa (technology). It was first introduced in Argentina in 1988, with the core objective of holding entrepreneurship training workshops. These entrepreneurship training workshops encourage individual entrepreneurs to focus on their role as entrepreneurs and challenge them to critically examine their personal strengths and weaknesses and learn how to sustain their businesses. Since inception, the Empretec programme has been initiated in twenty-seven countries, assisting more than 80 000 entrepreneurs through local market-driven business support centres. Programme MethodologyThe Empretec programme strives to identify and reinforce entrepreneurial competencies that are associated with successful traits, through self-assessment and individual transformation and business stimulation activities during entrepreneurship training workshops. These ‘motivation achievement’ workshops encourage individuals to focus on their role as entrepreneurs and challenge them to critically examine their personal strengthens and weaknesses. This is meant to provide an opportunity for participants to become more familiar with personality competencies of successful entrepreneurs, strengthen and enhance those personalities in themselves, and eventually be able to apply the personalities in their own businesses.

The training method is highly interactive. It involves structured exercises, group dynamics, diagnostic tools, business events and other activities, which are designed to challenge the participants to focus on such issues as their ability and willingness to seek and attain continuous improvements in quality, efficiency, growth, and profitability. This is achieved through learning by doing. The training enables participants to become aware of the need for continuous improvement as a competitive strategy in every aspect of their business.Successful graduates of the programme obtain a clear vision of what they want to do with their businesses in the short and long term. In the words of many participants, Empretec is a "culture of entrepreneurship" common to entrepreneurs who are open minded, forward thinking, look for win-win situations, want to improve and "speak the same language". Therefore, they trust each other and are more likely to do business among themselves.

Generally, Empretec is a programme that focuses on improving the core entrepreneurial behaviours of business owners that influence their conduct, and above all, the results of their business.
Target BeneficiariesEmpretec does not define its target group by assets, turnover, or number of employees. The beneficiaries are identified on the basis of both their personal entrepreneurial competencies and their innovative approach to business. The direct beneficiaries of the Empretec programme include existing SMEs that have a track record of good business performance, potential entrepreneurs with promising business ideas, and start-up companies with good bankable project proposals. It is expected that the individual development of the entrepreneurs that takes place during an entrepreneur training workshop will lead to SME growth, linkages with larger enterprises including transnational corporations (TNCs), job creation, increased investment, and regional economic development. To effect the programme activities in Zambia, UNCTAD recently trained eleven local empretecos (trainer of trainers) to spearhead the activities of the programme in the country. The eleven were drawn from the Zambia Development Agency, International Labour Organisation, Zambia Chamber of Small and Medium Business Associations, Young Women Christian Association, Future Search, and the Technical Educational, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority. The training was meant to help the Empretec Zambia Programme to get organised and established before it could start running on its own. Zambia Development Agency will coordinate all the programme activities in the country.

Renshina-Lumpa Sect: Youths Know Your Church History, Make Wise Denomination Decisions

The Lumpa Massacre

Malama Katulwende has another fascinating piece on the thorny question of the Lumpa massacre. He asks whether KK and other UNIPISTs should now be tried for crimes against humanity.

We have previously touched on this following Mwala Kalaluka's wonderful piece - Retracing Alice Lenshina's followers : Should Kaunda and UNIP militia be tried at The Hague for Crimes against Humanity?, Malama Katulwende, UK Zambians, Commentary :
The massacre of the Lumpa adherents by the United National Independence Party (UNIP) militia and the Zambian security forces is perhaps the darkest chapter in our history. An army officer – who witnessed the atrocious killing of Lumpas at Paishuko settlement in eastern Zambia, on August 7th 1964 – narrated the shocking experience as follows: “Many of the women and children had stakes thrust into anus or vagina or down their throats – this is how they were tortured to death.” This description is captured in John Hudson’s book, “A Time To Mourn” in which some official police photographs of the monstrous event depict a man with a stake hammered into his mouth, burnt corpses, and a woman who, after being repeatedly raped, had the skin of the inside of her thighs torn off.

Between July and September 1964 when the Lumpa-UNIP war started, over twenty thousand Lumpa faithful fled the country and settled in the Katanga province of the Congo. It is also estimated that at least two thousand members of the sect were killed by government soldiers alone, though official sources claim the figure to be slightly lower. The statistics, however, exclude thousands more who were wounded, and others who died from starvation, sickness and trauma on their journey into the Diaspora. Significant though the Lumpa conflict is to our appreciation of Zambian historiography, the Zambian government has, however, imposed a curtain of silence over this dreadful event. The Lumpa sect and ideology are not taught in schools, nor are objective narratives of the war and Diaspora of Lumpa officially admitted as part of our social memories. The burnt churches and mass graves of the Lumpa are not recognized nor celebrated as memory sites. The whole episode of murder and destruction has bee banished from the public domain as though nothing had happened.

This article, however, briefly looks back at the events which eventually led to the apocalypse – the Lumpa Church war with the UNIP militia and colonial government of Northern Rhodesia. We ask the question: Should our former first republican president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda and UNIP activists be tried at The Hague for their involvement in the massacre of members of the Lumpa Church? The paper answers in the affirmative. The demise of the Lumpa Church in Zambia and the genocide and dispersal of its members in the early 1960s has been a focus of several studies. Andrew Roberts’ article, “The Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina,” W.T. van Binsbergen, “Religious Change in Zambia: Exploratory Studies”, Hugo Hinfelaar, “Women’s Revolt: The Lumpa Church of Lenshina in the 1950s”, Jean Loup Chalmette, “The Lumpa sect, rural reconstruction, and conflict”, David Gordon, “Beyond Ethnicity: narratives of war and exile of the Lumpa Church,” and more recently, Gordon, “Rebellion and Massacre? The UNIP-Lumpa Conflict Revisited,” as well as two less scholarly works, “A Time To Mourn” by John Hudson, and “Blood on Their Hands” by Mulenga, have all reconstructed the terrible conflict from various perspectives.

They have looked at the Lumpa ideology, the political and class challenge of the Lumpa Church, UNIP militancy and the nationalist struggle for independence, and the religious separatism of the Lumpas. What these studies have not done, though, is demand the trial of Kaunda and UNIP activists for crimes against humanity and compensation by the Zambian government for the role it played in the annihilation of the Lumpa Church. This omission may be excusable because these studies are purely historical. Yet according to these accounts, Alice Lenshina Mulenga, founder and spiritual leader of the pan-Africanist Lumpa Church in Chinsali, Northern Province, defied Kenneth Kaunda’s UNIP directives to conform to demands to oust the white-settler regime from power in Northern Rhodesia. She denounced politics and encouraged her followers to “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. Unfortunately, this defiance against political authority, especially against a political authority which was to form the first ever Black government on October 24th 1964, and the formation of a separatist, religious sect whose beliefs and rituals were at variance with accepted, traditional values of European Churches and African cultural values such as chieftaincy, polygamy and sexual cleansing, alienated the Lumpa Church.

In their desire to escape from social, political and religious estrangement and violent attacks from UNIP cadres, the Lumpa Church members established settlements in Chinsali, Kasama, Mpika, Isoka and Lundazi. At its peak in 1960, the Lumpa Church had membership which outstripped that of all other churches in Northern Province and flourished in other areas such as Lusaka, Copperbelt, Kabwe, Livingstone and Zimbabwe. Although he sect had started off as a Bemba phenomenon, it later transcended cultural boundaries by drawing converts from other churches and tribes. Out of the population of 448,300 in the north-eastern Zambia, for example, an estimated 90,000 people were registered Lumpa members with 119 churches. In 1964, however, the objects of political militants in the struggle for independence and the simple, benevolent and separatist teachings of the Lumpa Church were destined to clash.

Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who was Prime Minister of the coalition government of UNIP and ANC, ordered the annilation of the stockaded, Lumpa settlements when the Lumpas refused to heed the deadline to relocate back to their former villages. Using automatic weapons the Zambian soldiers attacked the Lumpa headquarters, Sione, on July 30th 1964. Mercy Mfula remembered the event in Gordon’s work, “Rebellion or Massacre? The UNIP-Lumpa Conflict Revisited” like this: “We heard the sound of guns. We ran into houses to hide. Our friends were being shot. We heard others calling: ‘Come and see your friends are dead.’ We ran up and down; we saw people shout, some dying. The guns the soldiers used started from ground level and then rose to treetops. Chickens died, goats died, and trees lost their leaves. We ran up and down. Old people were crying. There was confusion. We kept saying, ‘God, what has happened?’ The purge of the Lumpa Church members and their dispersal into the Congo by UNIP and government forces raises some questions. Was the force used proportionate to the “threat” of the Lumpa Church? Was the sect entirely to blame for the massacre? What legal basis was there to justify the slaughter of defenseless women and children, or ill-equipped Lumpas who dared the British military in defense of their faith?

There is evidence to suggest that the Lumpa Church denounced the teachings of the foreign based churches, indigenous authority and occasionally attacked UNIP activists who were intolerant of their faith. Violent, physical skirmishes, indeed, took place between the Lumpas and UNIP cadres over the former’s refusal to buy party cards or attend political meetings on Sundays. Yet to just the use of brute force against the sect in the manner it was done is preposterous. However, Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, a staunch ally of Kaunda advocated for the extermination of the Lumpa Church: “Lenshina, and her adherents…People who eat their dung, washed their bodies with their own urine […] change into a devil, even five times worse than a devil, they actually would be wild beasts. When you find a wild beast eating in your gardens or trying to kill: what d you do? You would come together and start to follow it till it is dead. And even after death, you would break its legs, spit on it and roast it above the fire till nothing is left anymore. Our government is determined to destroy this wild beast.” These sentiments were irrational. They demonstrated a pathological hatred against the sect which cut across all UNIP cadres. Ironically, though, Kapwepwe himself would be a victim of Kaunda’s dictatorship and intolerance and would be associated with Lenshina, who was captured and jailed without trial until her death in 1978.

But Kaunda, whose own mother, Hellen, was a Lumpa member, and his own brother, Robert, composed songs for the sect, was to say of Alice Lenshina and the destruction of the church: “I have no intention whatsoever of again unleashing such evil forces. Let me end by reiterating that my government has no desire whatsoever to interfere with any individual’s religious beliefs but such a noble principle can only be respected where those charged with the spiritual, and I believe moral side of life, are sufficiently responsible to realize that freedom of worship becomes a menace and not a value when their sect commits murder and arson in the name of religion.”
Indeed, Kaunda might have been right to suggest that some members of the Lumpa sect did, in fact, commit murder and arson in retaliation against UNIPISTS who torched their churches, food stores and assaulted their members. Yet it is certainly false to claim that all Lumpa members, wherever they were, committed murder and arson in the name of their sect. To cite an example, the District Commissioner at Isoka, John Hudson, who took part in the destruction of the Lumpa settlement at Chanama, said: “I felt deeply sorry to have to uproot [the Lumpas] and destroy their well, built-settlement, which represented months of work. Destruction of the church was particularly distasteful. These people had never been aggressive towards their neighbors; it was simply their misfortune that they belonged to a church which had chosen a course of violence elsewhere…”

Of course, as a government official, Hudson was bound to defend the government by blaming the Lumpa Church. However, there is evidence to suggest that the Lumpa retaliation and violence against those who were against them was in response to the failure by the authorities to curtail UNIP-instigated attacks. Several times Lenshina begged the government to protect her members. When this failed, the sect left their traditional villages and established their own settlements away from the UNIP violence. On the other hand – assuming that Kaunda sought to preserve law and order – then why were activists who destroyed Lumpa churches and murdered its members rarely arrested but hailed as ‘freedom fighters’? At Paishuko in Eastern Province, for example, an entire settlement of Lumpa members who comprised women and children were tortured and exterminated by UNIP loyalists with the 1NRR soldiers nearby. Why did the government troops choose not to protect the settlement from UNIPISTS? It is also surprising to observe that despite the fact that the members of the Lumpa Church were only armed with primitive spears, axes and bows and arrows, Kaunda decided to use the 7.62mm NATO self-loading automatic rifles.

The government also sent over two thousand well, trained troops who fired shots even where there was no resistance from the Lumpas. Kaunda did not use the police who were specifically trained to deal with cases of law and order. This explains, though, the disparities in casualties. Less than ten government soldiers were killed or wounded by the sect, whereas the government massacred over two thousand Lumpas who included women and children. The victims were hastily buried in mass graves without any ceremony. The documents which implicated civil servants in the massacre have since vanished. But why were the documents destroyed if government sanctioned killing of the Lumpas was correct? What was the government afraid of if they were right? Why has there not been any official state discourse in the writing of textbooks for use by children in high schools, or even tertiary institutions? The annilation of the Lumpa Church has, however, had serious consequences. Not only were over twenty thousand sect-members forced into exile in the Congo, there were at least two thousand people killed by the government troops which should have protected them. Thousands more victims were wounded, or lost their lives from starvation, trauma as they took flight. This destruction of lives, property and displacement of Zambians by Kaunda and the UNIP is not only morally repugnant but criminal as well.

It is more than forty-six years since the tragedy happened. The majority of the Lumpas still live in exile in the Congo, while those who decided to either remain or return set up churches in different parts of the country. Their banishment under the Preservation of Public Security Act has not prevented them from keeping their faith. But strange to narrate, until the late 1990s their church had continued to suffer humiliation, torture, banishment and death, even when they were no longer living in their home country. For fear of a Lumpa attack from Mukambo, for example, the government of Zambia persuaded the Congolese government to force the Lumpa communities into the interior, or surrender them to the Zambian authorities. Unfortunately for the government, the Lumpa Church is still alive today. In summing up, therefore, we have sketched the social, political and ideological context in which the Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina, on the other hand, battled the government and UNIP activists prior to independence. We have suggested that although Lumpa adherents occasionally attacked UNIPISTS, the full responsibility for the Lumpa-UNIP war should be born by Dr Kaunda’s government and the UNIP militants, who unleashed a highly trained army to crash Lumpa factions armed with axes, spears, bows and arrows. We have also said that the force used against the Lumpas was not proportionate to their ‘threat.’ Dr. Kaunda, UNIPISTS and the Zambian government, therefore, should publicly apologize for the tragedy and compensate the victims for the untold suffering and death which they occasioned on Alice Lenshina and her followers.

More Reading:

Alice Lenshina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alice Lenshina was born Alice Mulenga Mubisha (1920, Kasomo, Northern Rhodesia – 1978) in the Chinsali district of the northern province of Northern ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Lenshina
Lenshina Mulenga Mubisha, Alice, Zambia, Lumpa Church Prophetess Alice Lenshina Mulenga Mubisha was the founder of a powerful African independent church movement at the time of Zambian independence. ...www.dacb.org/stories/zambia/lenshina1_alice.html -
Lenshina Mulenga Mubisha, Alice, Zambia, Lumpa Church- Roberts, A. "The Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina." In Protest and Power in Black Africa, eds. R. I. Rotberg and A. A. Mazrui, 513-68. ...www.dacb.org/stories/zambia/lenshina_alice.html

Seeking for Opportunities for Youths in the Traingle of Hope

Economic Hope through the Triangle of Hope
Currently, the real challenge of investment promotion agencies is being close to investors. They are struggling to be major partners of investors, taking care of their business needs and sustaining their future development plans.

Being close to investors means being able to provide a conducive environment that match investors’ activities. This requires a strong political support. It requires legal, regulatory and institutional reforms necessary in the creation of a conducive investor environment and a myriad of other essentials.

Keeping in conformity with these demands, Zambia has been implementing various sector reforms intended to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive. In this regard, recent expenditure frameworks are gravitated towards infrastructure development. These initiatives are meant to create a firm foundation for economic growth for the country by having an improved investment and business environment in Zambia. Among the most prominent of these reforms are the Private Sector Development Programme, Financial Sector Development Plan and the Strategic Action Initiative for Economic Development, commonly referred to as the Triangle of Hope (ToH).

The genesis of the Triangle of Hope dates back to January 2005 when the Zambian government asked the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for help in investment promotion. In agreement, JICA engaged a Malaysian consultant to come up with terms of promoting investment for Zambia under the Action for Africa programme. This gave birth to the Strategic Action Initiatives for Economic Development or simply the Triangle of Hope.

The core of ToH is to assist in the creation of an environment in which the private sector creates more jobs and generate greater wealth in Zambia. The initiative takes after the Malaysian and Far Eastern Experience with economic development. It illustrates how Malaysia, a multi racial nation and basically raw material exporter in the early 1960s was convulsed in racial violence in 1967 and threatened to become another basket case Developing Nation. It brings lessons on how by stint of national unity, political will, civil service efficiency and private sector dynamism the nation within 10 years, Malaysia became the worlds largest exporter of electronic semiconductors and the 3rd largest country in the world exporting room air conditioners.

To bring to effect the Malaysian Miracles, the initiative encourages the creation of a conducive investment and business environment by government for the private sector to increase its levels of investment. The Zambian government committed itself to the parametres of the initiative in trying to increase private sector investment flows. The government thus pledged to provide the required environment for the attainment of the Triangle of Hope targets.

These requirements include the provision of efficient, effective public services and facilities and performance-based and time-bound incentives. This involved private sector reforms like the streamlining of government approval and licencing procedures, and transparent incentives to all prospective investors.

The Triangle of Hope investment promotion initiative employs the Quadrant Strategy to attain the ultimate objective of job and wealth creation. The entry point into the four stages is about putting in place the best investment and business environment through improved policies, streamlined government machinery, rules, regulations, laws and incentives that conform to international best practices. These reforms embrace all government functionaries in order to have well-coordinated investment promotion information packages on the services, facilities and incentives government offers. The strategy is meant to help Zambia offer the competitive advantage that drive down the cost of doing business in the country.

The second stage looks at how government and private sector entities interested in accessing capital through joint ventures or technology and equipment should prepare Project or Business Profiles. Further, government is mandated to develop and implement an investment promotion strategy where the information on available business opportunities in the country will be distributed to investors at home and abroad. And lastly, the Quadrant Strategy mandates government agencies to use knowledge gained on the best practices to facilitate the quick implementation of approved projects through the entire government system from national level to the grassroots level so that jobs and wealth can be created at all levels. This would in turn give businesses in Zambia attain profits in being in a globally competitive environment and thereby contribute to the expansion of the Zambian economy.

The implementation process of the ToH involved the formation of task forces composed of members of the civil service and the private sector. The task forces were mandated to prepare recommendations for cabinet consideration on the creation of favourable business environment. The ToH steering committees that were formed included those for the agriculture, banking and finance, education, health, mining, multi-facility economic zones, micro and small enterprises, among others. The aim for inclusiveness was to generate the sense of belonging by all stakeholders.

The Triangle of Hope has since increased the spirit of collaboration among government agencies and cooperating partners in dealing with programmes that are aimed at improving the environment for doing business in Zambia. Such efforts are expected to stimulate further collaborations in pursuing strategies that make Zambia an all weather investment destination. The private sector development programme has since already dedicated resources for the identification of land banks that will be used for various business purposes. The ToH itself has also been given another lease for three years by JICA having came to an end last year. The net effect of the programme is the creation of business-oriented environment in the country.

As FDI Inflow Increases......Youth Unemployment Levels are Going Higher..........Where have we Missed the Equations?

Widening FDI Promotion Spectrum
“Only when all contribute their firewood can they build a strong fire,” states a Chinese proverb. With the high competitiveness for foreign direct investment (FDI) globally, the promotion of investment in the country requires everyone’s efforts to realise meaningful FDI inflows and their net economic benefits. Missions abroad, government officials and Zambia development Agency, all need to do their bits to bolster FDI inflow.
In May 2008, government’s passion to add its firewood to the investment promotion bonfire into untapped areas sprouted when a government delegation headed by President Levy Mwanawasa visited Japan, a country that hitherto never considered Zambia as an investment destination. The visit was under the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative. The Zambian delegation was among the 51 representatives from Africa, including 40 Heads of State and Government, who joined the then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan, to create a blueprint for a “century of African growth” at the Fourth TICAD Summit.
At the three day Summit, Japan outlined and re-emphasised its determination to contribute substantially to the development of Africa. Addressing delegates to the Summit, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan’s commitment to African development was demonstrated in launching the TICAD process and shifting the international community’s attention back to Africa in the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, which appeared to focus global interest elsewhere. He pledged serious Japanese involvement in the development of Africa for the continent to meet challenges of the 21st century especially in technology and value addition to the continent’s raw materials which were mostly exported in less-value-raw form.
The 2008 TICAD process spurred a wave of innovative activities in the framework of the priority areas, one of which was boosting economic growth in Africa through FDI and other co-operational agreements. The TICAD commitments in bolstering FDI in Zambia were furthered by the Triangle of Hope initiative under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The net benefits of all such initiatives became reality last month when a Japanese business delegation visited Zambia to explore business opportunities in various sectors of the economy.
The Japanese delegation comprised 50 representatives from the private sector as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industries and Japan External Trade Operation. Among the fifty, 40 were representatives of 12 Japanese companies with different business prospects in Zambia. The main focus of the 12 companies included mineral resources exploration, infrastructure development, energy, information, communication technologies (ICTs), rural development and agriculture.

While in the country, the companies identified various investment prospects in the mining, energy, information communication technologies sectors, among others. One of the companies, Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Ltd committed itself to establish an automobile plant in Lusaka worth US$10 million in the second half of this year. Company general manager for the African Department of Sales and Market, Mr. Hidemi Murata said Zambia offered substantial business opportunities that Hitachi wanted to utilise to enhance the economic status of citizens of both countries and share the much needed technology for productivity in the 21st century.

The establishment of an automobile plant by Hitachi in Zambia offers numerous economic and technological opportunities that Zambians can convert to reality. Japan has driven its economy mainly through technological advancement. The country fostered successful technological advances in its national development policies, which enabled it ascend through the economic development ladder to where it is today. There are many lessons Zambia can learn and blend in its policies to bridge gaps caused by low technological advancements in the economy.

The commitment Japan has shown to participate in the Zambian economy by establishing a plant to produce spare parts and other automobile components as well as investing in the mining, agriculture machinery and ICT sectors will greatly improve Zambia’s business environment and drastically improve efficiency in production. The country thus needs to blend the Japanese culture of using technology as a tool for making marketable products appropriately and use Hitachi as an example to attract other reluctant Japanese investors to entrust their money into the Zambian economy.

Being a preserve of several natural resources, whose economic potential has remained underutilised for decades, Zambia can tap knowledge and technological etiquettes from Japanese firms investing in the land and make production technology central in the economy. With high-tech integrated in the economy, what used to be economic potential will be translated into economic growth reality. The country will be able to produce and export value added products. Serious agro-processing of raw materials the agriculture sector is blessed with will become endemic for the manufacturing sector, thereby adding value to Zambia’s primary produce. The country’s export earning value will hence increase. Thus, more jobs will be created and the country’s Vision 2030 of becoming a middle income nation will be enhanced and become reality.

The manufacturing sector’s untapped potential can be boosted by borrowing and implementing the Japanese technological models through technological sharing benefits that accompany FDI. Incorporating the technological lessons from industrial giants like Japan, into national policies can be a clear force in developing Zambia’s competitive advantage of having numerous natural resources. Being an interconnected landlocked country, Zambia can be a hub of technological advancement. Its diversification of the industrial base and the expansion of non-traditional exports will become authentic, thus increasing the country’s competitiveness as an FDI destination.

With economic diversification at the epicentre of Zambia’s development agenda, Japan is a strategic manner especially in enhancing value addition, increasing efficiency in the manufacturing sector and bridging the technological gaps in the ICT sector, among other areas. Strategic policies like the PPP policy and the MFEZ initiative can help in the assimilation of private capital inflows to make Zambia an industrial hub in the region and Africa. In that way, Zambia may become industrious together with Japan.

SME Growth Models for Youths.....In Abundat Unemployment Economies

SMEs: India’s Economic Heroes, Lessons for Zambia
For all its current economic strength, India remains a beacon of small and medium entrepreneurialism. Indian entrepreneurs are making waves across the world. Its micro, small and medium business firms are making acquisitions abroad and spreading their tentacles in various corners of the globe. They have flourished under globalisation and have proved all doomsday prophecies wrong.

Thus, India’s economy has been one of the stars of global economics in recent years mainly due to its robust SME sector. With its growth being supported by market reforms, rising foreign exchange reserves, both an information telecommunications (IT) and real estate boom, and a flourishing domestic direct investment (DDI) and capital market, India offers rewarding economic lessons to Zambia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector.

According to the 2009 Economist Report on entrepreneurship, India is the ninth in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey of entrepreneurial countries. It is the highest among 28 countries in Necessity Based Entrepreneurship, while second among all nations in Total Entrepreneurship Activity. The country has been registering about US$3.6 billion annually from the ICT sector alone from SMEs prior to the economic crisis. The mobbed SME heroes of India were transforming small start-ups into global giants every year. They created business minded societies in several Indian cities by engaging in a frenzy of networking through partnerships and joint ventures.

India improved the growth of the SME sector after liberalising the economy in the 1990s by linking education and the industry. The country’s universities/colleges became its economic engines with proliferating science parks, technology offices, business incubators and venture funds. This helped to create a business minded class of graduates. The tradition entrepreneurship dates-back to basic and high schools in India. The trend has significantly boosted India’s DDI profile.

The country’s higher education system has also been designed to discover and develop first-class entrepreneurial skills. The system does not only inspire graduates to strike it rich, but to play their part in forging a new India with a double-digit economic and GDP growth and low levels of poverty. And through linking the education system to the industry, India began to reverse the brain drain. The country’s prodigal children were summoned home by economic offers of the native soil. For instance, from 2003-2005, some 5,000 industrious Indians returned home from America. They trekked home to kick-start the country’s entrepreneurial economy and increase the DDI flow.

These Indian transplants from the Diaspora promoted SME growth through mentoring, networking and education. Today their network has 12, 000 members and operates in 53 cities in 12 countries. The transplants helped to fill some of the skills gaps created by India’s recent boom. They also reinforced the country’s existing links with high-tech countries in the West like America and in Europe.

The Indian SME sector growth model offers various fundamental lessons for Zambia’s MSME sector. The linking of the education system to the industry is essential to the ZDA, TEVETA and ministry of education strategies meant to strengthen entrepreneurship levels in the country. By collaborating with human resource training institutions, citizens will obtain an entrepreneurship spirit and learn the art of sustaining business at the appropriate age. They will thus grow up with an entrepreneurial mindset. Such a phenomenon can result into a knowledge-based economy, where the use of knowledge is the main driver of growth, wealth creation and employment across all sectors without much dependency on foreign investors.

Picking it from the Indian model, several skills training institutions under TEVETA, government run colleges and universities and those in the private hands can be a haven of entrepreneurial savvy and breeding grounds for businesses. The public-private partnership initiative can be a hallmark of linking the education system to the industry beyond public educational institutions. Business incubator programmes can be rooted into these institutions to blend business mindsets in students at the right time. The trend can descend further to basic schools and high schools in order to overhaul the Zambian mindset towards business. The strategy is paramount in enhancing government’s numerous programmes meant to meet long term developmental goals of attaining middle income status by 2030 among others.

Information telecommunications (ICT) is another significant parametre Zambia can tap from the India SME growth model to improve MSMEs’ business prowess. India’s enterprising heroes like Azim Premji transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil company into a software giant. After liberalising the ICT sector, many Indian SMEs ventured into the sector. The cost of doing business equally reduced drastically. Internet use, calling rates and other related expenses fall. The sector became a lucrative business web.

With the ICT policy in place and other initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure, MSMEs can achieve and contribute greatly to the economy. Strategies such as multi-facility economic zones (MFEZ) meant to have necessary infrastructure in place for improved productivity can help transform dormant small enterprises into economic giants. Grounding MSMEs with competencies on how to utilise ICT to improve business efficiency is key in developing and discovering first-class MSMEs that can creating a strong buffer zone for the local economy. The current business reforms government is implementing fits well in promoting the MSME sector and the local economy as a whole.

The MFEZ initiative can help create a pool of MSMEs in various businesses. Various networks can sprout from these zones and help to uproot start-ups by providing them with key information on market offers and other business etiquettes. The start-ups can be both supplies and part of the global supply chains. With business linkage and joint venture initiatives already in place under the ZDA, Zambia can easily propel its DDI flow to supplement FDI. The net effect of such a combination will be increased economic growth, job and wealth creation as well as poverty reduction.

With well watched pace and coordinated policy strategies, Zambia can realise many new entrepreneurs onto the business sphere. The entrepreneurial spirit will begin to breathe new life into Zambia’s public and private sector and greatly revolve the economy. Zambians in the Diaspora will see the need to invest back home and translate Western ideas into local ideologies, combining them with acquired technological advances to drive economic growth. With such an economic atmosphere, Zambia, like India will be hopeful of having a brighter economic future.

Address University Challenges....in Zambia.....to Easy Youth Excelling

World-over, its acknowledged that the University is a premier center of excellence for research and training aimed at offering practical and workable answers to the challenges mankind faces. Therefore, the university occupies a critical position in any nation.

As rightly observed by the First President of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda at his inaugural ceremony as the chancellor of the University of Zambia in 1966, ‘that a University is one of the keys that can open the door to the future of our nation and help us to overcome the persisting evils of poverty, ignorance and diseases without such an institution we cannot hope to become the nation we want to be’

This view was recently echoed by the Gabonese President Omar Bongo at the 2006 Association for the Development of Education in Africa conference held in Gabon, of which Zambia was part. He stated that effective learning institutions are powerful ‘weapons’ against most of the continents’ challenges these include poverty, ignorance, diseases and illiteracy.

However, the strategic role and glorified position of Zambian Universities is being undermined by the many old challenges they face. Prominent among these are poor and inadequate infrastructure, persistent closures and students’ demonstrations, which are all highly attributed to poor funding and untimely disbursement of funds to the institution. Therefore, addressing these genuine concerns is critical to finding an enduring solution to the Universities' hurdles and improve their image.

Last year the country witnessed a number of demonstrations not only from university students but also from their college counterparts. The issues raised need systematic attention from all stakeholders, which are the government, private sector and ex-students. It must however be pointed that the spirit and approach under which these genuine concerns are pursued should be revisited by Student Unions and peaceful and positive strategies adopted.

The frequent disturbances at the highest institutions of learning may sadly represent the single most important factor that shapes ordinary Zambians’ perceptions and understanding of Universities. This is because the opinions of people about the Universities are anchored in these experiences. This has began to regrettably erode the citizens’ sympathy on the genuine plight of our Universities and further deny students and graduates an opportunity to foster the necessary positive image as the intellectual group of the nation.

Our society faces so many challenges. Our nation is beset by high unemployment (estimated at over 70%), poverty (over 70%), corruption, illiteracy and general underdevelopment. To overcome these challenges Zambia requires dedicated and committed trained graduates to inspire and advance the cause of the people. Our future hope lies in graduates who are able to transform the dreams and visions of our people into realities.

The late Zambian Professor Lameck Goma, once said “its not enough for our Universities to produce just graduates, it is important that they produce men and women of broad vision and wide culture, men and women with sympathy for their fellow humans, men and women with integrity, men and women who are dedicated to the serious purposes of life, men and women of hard objective thinking and courageous enough to engage in it”.

However, in order for new University graduates to assume and perform this responsibility, major hindrances needs to be addressed.

First, graduate casualisation. Its sad that, after years of dedicated training and hard work, some graduates are paid the equivalence of their then students’ allowances. Some employers have taken advantage of the lapses, gaps and inadequacies of our laws, compounded by the prevailing high unemployment and the evident desperation for jobs amongst graduates to deprive them

Workers’ rights are central to human dignity and therefore they must be protected and promoted at all costs. Its gratifying to note that the Mugomba Draft Constitution contains important sections relating to employment. In the Bill of Rights (Part 6), economic, social and cultural rights are included. Among these are workers’ rights to fair wage, equal work equal pay and to work under acceptable, safe and healthy conditions. Further, old labour laws should be revised, stiffened and enforced to curb graduate casualisation.

Secondly, graduate unemployment. According to the Living Conditions and monitoring Survey of 2002 to 2003, only 15% of the productive Zambians are in formal employment. This value is not so different, as a snap survey indicates that 2 out of 10 graduates are in formal gainful employment. The high unemployment levels have compelled graduates to seek greener pastures in other countries. This sadly, has resulted in our country witnessing one of the most disastrous brain drains in her history.

Further, Its lamentable that more than five years after the Millennium Declarations adopted by the General assembly of Heads of State of which Zambia is part, not much has been done to resolve this. The heads of State made a commitment to resolve youth unemployment by developing and implementing strategies that give young people every where a real opportunity to find decent and productive work.

The challenge of unemployment is further compounded by the presence of foreign expertise in jobs that can easily and competently be executed by locally trained graduates. Though, I appreciate the various merits that come with foreign investment such as advanced skills and technology, the fact that most foreign firms come with their own professionals renders our highly trained graduates disused. Zambia is not short of brilliant brains or intellectual capital to fill up these positions.

I therefore urge the authorities to protect, preserve and promote its own trained graduates, as it is the case in other countries. Further, in order to encourage and tap rare business skills from graduates to implore government to create a graduates’ fund from youth fund budget.

As observed by His Excellency the President of Zambia, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa SC at the official opening of the National Assembly on 15th January 2006, that government-private partnership is vital to resource mobilization for the Universities. As adequate finance is crucial to finding an enduring solution to university troubles. Whilst, we appreciate the private sector’s current contributions to Zambian Universities, there is need for more private investment in fixed assets such as construction of hostels and recreation facilities. These are viable business ventures for the corporate organizations!

Further, graduates should be made to be more accounted to Universities. Graduates need to have a bigger and greater responsibility to give back to the University.

In the absence of well meaning commitment, University troubles will persist and the country will also continue to lose its graduates to other countries that offer better and attractive conditions of services. Therefore, in order for the graduates to translate knowledge into realism and national ills, we require genuine leadership in opinion, thought, character, words and deeds at all levels in the nation.

So with adequate support, University graduates can provide intellectual balance and realism on issues affecting the Zambian people. With commitment, university graduates can provide socio-economic and environmental turning points for the Zambian people. With political will and zeal, they can adequately face the historical challenge of contributing knowledge for sustainable development, transformation, empowerment, future survival and competition. Finally, with foresight, University graduates can be able to crystallize the aspirations and desires of the Zambian people.(Borrowed from Herman Kunda)

Senseless Statistics....to suffering youths

OUr Presidents do not need any educated character like Dr. Francis Chigunta to tell him about the extent of poverty and economic decline in Zambia. He should not listen to the World Bank or the IMF because they have never been trusted when it comes to poor countries. They are sophisticated international economic criminals.

For isntance if president Banda wants to see the faces of poverty in Zambia, he just needs to take a walk to the northern side of the main gate at state House. About 50 metres away, he will see the real Zambia. Those dirty ramshackles where State House workers are packed represent the true picture of the Zambian economy. It stinks. People are suffering. They have no food.

They have no money to send their children to school. They did not celebrate Christmas or New Year because they had no means. When politicians and foreigners were wishing each other a prosperous new year over expensive food and wine, the majority of Zambians including workers staying in the State House compound were yawning with hunger. It’s not fun. President Banda and his praise-singers ended 2009 and entered 2010 saying they have done a good job. They claim that the Zambian economy has recovered. Recovered from what? The Zambian economy has been sick for decades. The Zambian economy is like a person with full blown AIDS. He or she has a lot of opportunistic diseases because of his/her generally weak body. Today s/he is sneezing and tomorrow s/he has swollen legs. It does not mean that once the sneezing has stopped, the patient has recovered. The virus is still in the body and in Zambia’s case, the HIV lives at State House.

You can’t say that the economy has recovered because it has gone back where it was in 2008. How was Zambia’s economy in 2008 for you to be so proud? How many employable people in Zambia had no jobs? How many people were turned from hospitals to go and die at home because there was no medicine in the hospitals? How many people went to bed on empty bellies? Is that the status you want to measure your performance on? And if at all any gain has been made, was it on account of the present government’s competence?

We are told that the mining sector was hardest hit due to decline in the copper price to about $2,800 dollars per tonne. Towards the end of 2009, the price rose to 7,000 dollars. Has the Zambian government has any control over this? Is it not true that even if I was the one in State house the price of copper would have behaved the same? How many people have been employed in addition to those who were labouring in the sector before the good excuse of credit crunch began? How much money will go to Zambians under the new high prices of the commodity? What the present regime is saying is that they are proud to have taken back the economy to the status quo we have always lived under.

If there are any minor gains anywhere in the economy, it is not right for president Banda and his friends to go on roof tops and praise themselves. That is against Biblical advice. Since president Banda said he will maintain that questionable declaration of Zambia as Christian nation, then when we can safely assume that he believes in some of the Bible verses including the one on self praise. “Let another man, not you, praise you’ that is what the Bible says. What this means is that, president Banda does not need to hire clever-for-nothing writers to enumerate the economic gains which we can’t see for our selves.

If there is progress, we shall see it in our own lives. Our children will have schools places and money to pay. Our graduates will have jobs and or access to loan facilities to establish their own businesses. Our retired elders will access their packages immediately they sign off unlike the current situation where most of them die from depression because they can’t access their money. Our peasant farmers will have ready market for their produce instead of being conned out of their year’s sweat by thieves at Soweto market. The social delivery service system will be functional for those of our relatives who need the facility. Politicians will leave politics and go into business without regretting unlike now where they go direct into poverty. Why do you think ministers worship the president?

What does a single digit inflation mean to street kids who are exposed to all sorts of life’s abomination every day? If the economy is improving, why are prices of basic needs like salt and maize meal not reducing? How do you measure three per cent growth when people who live just outside you fence have no food? Why do you think there is so much focus on the presidency and politics in general? People know that it is only politicians who are eating well.

The best way to ease tension in the country is to improve the economy for every one.
Zambia has a small population of 12 million which is very ease to budget and cater for. The problem is that the people at the top are only interested in themselves and their relatives. The money spent on one cabinet minister in month is enough to build two state of the art clinics in any given compound. Those goons at Bank of Zambia and Central Statistical office should stop being lazy and go into the filed to gather actual statistics on real people. Just because they can afford to get a loan to buy a car and build a house on a plot obtained through bribery does not mean that all is well with everyone.

They have nothing to lose by producing statistics that show the real picture on the ground. The problem is that such people spend most of their time in their properly furnished offices and can’t see the world out there. When they go to gather data, they still stay in lodges and have no time to mingle with people. Unless of course in night clubs. That is why most of them have AIDS. In conclusion, the government just needs to work and work without blowing its own trumpet. The people will see for themselves. Not every one is malicious as to choose not to see development which is actual. As it is, the statistics we have been given are not motivating Zambians. They are annoying and stupid. We shall not eat statistics. We need food. We need access to clean water.