Luapula: A haven of investment opportunities

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Luapula Province has abundant opportunities for tourism development, agriculture and mining.  The province has good arable land and rainfall patterns as well as abundant water resources. It is endowed with some of the unmatched natural wonders in Zambia. 

Across the entire province are a number of beautiful waterfalls and wetlands that host some of the rare species in the entire world like the black Lechwe and the shoebill stock. Luapula is also very rich in culture whose traditional ceremonies have become very popular tourist attractions.

The province has eight waterfalls, namely Lumangwe, Kabwelume, Chilongo, Finkula, Kundabwika, Ntumacushi, Mumbuluma and Mumbotuta. Lumangwe is the second largest waterfalls in Zambia after Victoria Falls. The province also has abundant wildlife and bird species that are only found in Luapula the world over, sandy beaches on the two lakes, traditional sites, hot springs, and Iron Age smelters.

Thirty percent of Zambia’s water resources are in Luapula. The province is the water haven, with high aqua concentration. Rainfall levels are high throughout the province with the Northern plateau and the Bangweulu swamps receiving the highest. The rainfall levels are ideal for agriculture activities.

The four major physical features of the province include the valley that run parallel to the Luapula River, Lake Mweru and Bangweulu. Lake Bangweulu has swampy areas to the east and south as well as beautiful and clean sand of Samfya beach on Lake Bangweulu, making the beach one of the best in the world, and a prime area for any type of resort facilities.

The province is a preserve for tourism. Its keys features for tourist attraction are the Samfya Beach, Bangweulu swamps, the eight waterfall, Lusenga Plains National Park, and traditional ceremonies like the Mutomboko. These tourist attractions are a very important resource for the development of the province.

The vast water resources of Luapula provide potential for various economic activities associated with sustainable water usage, such as hydro power generation, agriculture and irrigation systems.

According to provincial minister Dr. Boniface Kawimbe, Luapula sitting on 950 megawatts of hydropower potential that its rivers and numerous waterfalls offer for utilisation. Mining is the other resource of the province. The mining activities in the province have been largely for manganese which commenced as far back as 1953, on small scale. Iron ore occurrences are widespread in area which if exploited together with manganese would form a basis for large scale iron and steel industry in Luapula.

A wide range of known base metals, gemstones and industrial minerals are also found in Luapula. These minerals include ton copper, zinc, lead, feldspar, silica sand, talc, limestone, lithium, clays and gemstones (citrine, tourmaline, and garnet). Substantial deposits of limestone are found in Bukanda and Matanda.

The province has favourable climate and soil for palm oil trees.  Luapula has than 90,000 indigenous and 30,000 fully grown hybrid trees of palm trees. The hybrid trees are mainly grown by small holder farmers. These hybrid trees have the potential yield of 20 metric tonnes of fresh fruit per hectare, whose yield about 4.2 metric tonnes. The oil palm trees can grow up to 25 years with yield increasing as the tree grows older.

Regardless of all these investment opportunities in the province, most of them have remained untapped, hence making the province of the least developed in the country. Dr. Kawimbe has attributed the dismal utilisation of Luapula’s resources to lack of strategic investment initiatives, uncoordinated mining activities and lack of information resource centre to provide quality investment.

 “To do business one needs a lot of information found in different offices. There is need for a one central place where all business related information could be housed,” said Dr. Kawimbe. Speaking during the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Trade and Investment Workshop in Luapula, the minister said Luapula needed a one stop information centre facility to reduce on time spent on seeking for information on buyers and suppliers of key materials or machinery for production.

The other hindrance to full exploitation of the province’s immense resources is the high cost of doing business. Most districts have no banking facilities, hence bank users have to travel to Mansa each time they want to deposit or withdraw money. Access to finance is a stumbling block to business growth as well. Being that unemployment is high in the province, most businesses cannot access bank loans as banks preferred lending money to employees (salary based loans).

These challenges have been compounded by lack of management skills by most business owners, inability to write bankable business ideas to access funding from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission, poor saving and loan repayment culture and limited investment avenues. Other impediments the business community in the province faces is lack of information on the kind of financial products financial institutions offer for both micro, small and medium enterprises and large scale investors.

To address some of the barriers that retarded business in the province, ZDA in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Luapula have organised a regional office to provide key information to the business community in the province. Through the office, a data bank linkage will be created and connected to the ZDA information resource centre for the business community to access key information on affordable finance offers, market surveys, specialised trade agencies and suppliers and buyers of various goods and services that are utmost importance to their businesses.

As the pioneer of investment promotion in the economy, ZDA designated about 300 hectares of land for the establishment of a multi-facility economic zone in Chembe. The economic zone will accommodate various businesses involved in lighting engineering, construction and hardware industries, food industries, agriculture and agro-processing as well as chemical industries like biofuels.

These industries will stimulate a number of economic activities in auxiliary sectors such as agriculture, textiles industry, mining industry, food and beverage industries. Suppliers and buyers of end products from the economic zone will have abundant market for various products. Many support sectors to these industries that could be currently dormant will be boosted through developments in the economic zone.

With the involvement of the local people in the province in promoting investment and utilising the MSME strategies the Zambia Development Agency has initiated, it is hoped that Luapula will unleash its real economic value to national development, job and wealth creation to improve their livelihood. As the provincial minister put it “since we have got people interested in investing in Luapula, both our own local and foreign…then once we cement all these relationships, we can turn all these potentials into reality.”