IF Zambia was my company??

By Clive Mutame Siachiyako 

Forget about Zambia being a country divided into 10 provinces for now. Look at it as a company. A company that needs a turnaround of things to make it more liveable and socially and economically inspiring...My first point of entry would be sharpening power supply [malaiti, ba zesco –Zambia Electricity Power Supplying Company]. Then I will turn to other social and economic factors that I can put into some level of practicable direction to make most of my company’s lifeblood viable.

The economic and social life revolves around energy supply. Even the body requires an assortment of energy to survive. Running a company without power is very dangerous in this era. Endowed with varied sources of energy: sunshine to generate solar energy, wind for wind power, biogas for bio-energy, and water for hydro in different parts of the country; pragmatic steps to decongest zesco and increase supply to manufacturing and other key sectors that need more energy than households would make my zed company more desirable to keep.

Making solar power generating equipment more accessible at cheaper rates would be supreme. Looking at how much sun we have every day, households can be brought into reality of generating their own power from their roofs. Since no one lives underground, everyone who has a house would be encouraged to put solar membranes, solar panels and other sunshine trapping gadgets to generate as much solar power possible. That can give zesco breathing space for delink some homes and focus the hydro power to most critical sectors what can take longer investment to generate and supply solar power to their operations.

In addition to solar energy, I will focus on utilising the sewer resource every home produces. I mean the resource humans leave in the toilet. This can be used to produce bio-energy to supplement solar energy. If the sunshine fails us, bio-gas will do the magic. Forget about technicalities, I am taking about connecting every septic tank to biogas generating system, what technocrats would call Anaerobic Digestion. From climatology perspective, this is an incredible sustainability step to save the environment. I can make engineers more useful than scrambling for banking and management jobs by getting them involved in extracting energy from the great sewer resources wasted daily.

Simply put, when constructing a house, connect pipes from the septic tank to the storage facility for your biogas. A qualified electrical technician will help you with technicalities to go with a biogas digester to tap bio-energy from the human waste and have it stored somewhere in some container connected further to your gas stove. Before you knew it, you will be smiling with energy in your home while others scream at zesco for taking away the electricity. To learn more visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AZv6MjZylo

Village people who rear livestock can also benefit from a great resource of livestock dung to generate biogas. The droppings from their livestock can into energy to light up their homes and for cooking. That can save so many trees. Another climatology score there! Biogas can also be generated from waste from our kitchens...the food remains we dump in municipality dump sites can be kept somewhere in a ditch and pipes connected to a biodigester or something of that nature to generate and store the bio-energy before pumping it into homes for use, something my zed company badly needs.

I am talking about changing mindsets, being innovative, no idling when the going is getting chaotic, no baby crying...but doing whatever is within means to get things better. The construction of the University of Zambia history indicates attracted all sorts of contributions from peasant farmers, fish mongers, metal fabricators...anybody bringing anything from chickens to goats and building sand to erect it. Triggering a true spirit of "LET'S DO IT" can get the company zed somewhere. Putting luxury aside a little bit to get things in place will be my top most mission. Everybody from office assistants to the highest office...my office as CEO of zed company have to tighten belts and commit ourselves to getting the company on track before enjoying our sweat.

With rains playing hide and seek, I would sit down FRA and have every grain meticulously stocked because the year ahead looks bad. When rains delay, hunger looms. What we have can be the ‘stick to kick the dog’ on the bad day. Further, I would encourage every household that has excess crop to keep it tightly until the harvest is known. With climate change distorting rainfall patterns...pushing rains to come rate and reducing its lifespan during the rainy season, I would make everyone realise time for jokes on food security is over. Hungry people are angry people. Keep my zed company people look beyond their nose on their food stock would be among my top priorities.

The cost of living is already high; adding hunger due to poor rains will lead into a disaster that will set masses ablaze with anger. The message on my lips whenever allowed to open my mouth in public would be to take care of every little food, every grain and every coin because the year ahead does not look green. It looks bleak and unpromising. The earlier reality dawns to everyone, the better we can gear up and collaboratively chart the way forward. FRA will be at the driver’s seat in keeping the food security walk in practical.

Coming to jobs...mines are looking for saving measures. I would also look for measures to increase my company’s share from minerals. Time to get real is now. Mining investors are foreign and cost of capital is far much cheaper in their countries. They can get cheaply lent capital, mechanise the mine to reduce cost and maximise profit...and bingo! They will not need thousands of workers. Work done by 1000 miners would be smartly done by a single mining equipment. Where does that leave my zed company? Chaotic...people crying and screaming for jobs in the mines, wanting things to be done the same way....manually and employing masses.

My company zed would have to take drastic measures. Either increase tax payable to its coffers through appropriate taxes that are beyond the laughable taxes currently existing. Use the returns from the mines to invest in human capital and use that human capital to create jobs and wealth somewhere else. Do not ask me where...when people are thinking outside the box and innovatively to use their hands and brains, the sky is never the limit.

The human capital I am talking about includes stocks of knowledge, habits, social and personality attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labour to produce economic value. Comparative advantage principle can apply here...those with technical knowledge can generate bio-energy, solar and others and use it to supply our neighbours who need energy so much. By the time they wake up, we would have made our money and invest in other things. Where there is a will, there is away. Idling and praying for a miracle while blessed with plenty is not enough. Creativity, hard work, dedication, sacrifice and determination can add to what is beyond humanity.

What I am saying...?

ONE: the energy deficit is real. We need to think beyond basic reasoning. We have to diversity energy generation and grab every energy resource available to avert the situation. Who told zesco power generation and supply is only hydro? Whoever it is must be Stone Age minded. El-Nino effects on rainfall patterns for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 were predicted by scientists way back...and as usual some people thought climatologists are making too much noise about global warming, it will not happen. It is unfortunately here. We still have 2 rough years to go with the El-Nino blues.

Forget about what you were told on “urinating in the Kariba dam” to fill it up and generate the required hydro energy. I would even agree with Enock Kavindele’s idea of getting water from Lake Tanganyika down to Kariba dam and get things moving. Is it possible? Let us say we connect the Lukuga River an outflow of Lake Tanganyika to Kafue River and let the water flow all the way to Lake Kariba?....Nile river was dug somewhere...!!If that would be too costly, what about starting a new hydro power plant on the northern region where rainfall patterns are more stable to help hydro power generation hiccups? Where are the engineers in Zambia? What are they saying?

TWO: rains are not likely to be stable this year. Hunger is knocking on our doors. We have to safeguard the little crop from last farming season until we are sure of the things. Waiting for the last minute is pathetic planning and bad way of living on earth. Projectory mindsets are drivers of appreciated actions. 

THREE: technology has massively advanced. Expecting the mines to operate on old methods and shun mechanisation to please the job market is folly. Even shopping malls are now mechanising their system...installing CCTV cameras to monitor theft and introducing self-service on the tills via swiping is becoming more desirable than having till operators who give endless headaches for pay raise to management. We got to start thinking about these things. We got to empower people differently to broaden their basket. Government can get decent tax from these malls and invest the money into its human capitals to enable citizens apply themselves somewhere.

I will give two examples: Cuba and Philippines. Cuba invested heavily in providing medical doctors and exported them all over the world. Philippine is doing the same via smart training of nurses massively, exporting and getting remittances to drive the economy home. Philippine’s idea is have the benefits returned to the educational institutions and hospitals that are producing the emigrant nurses. These are not perfect examples, but they are showing how we can use our comparative advantage to leverage our position.

What are Zambia’s comparative advantages? How best can they be utilised for the betterment of the country? Together we can add and shape quality and admirable Zambia.

IF Zambia was my company!!!