MINISTRY of Finance and National Planning Permanent Secretary Danies Chisenda says Development Bank of Zambia had to suspend its lending operations in 2018 due to lack of capacity and will only resume once the Bank is adequately recapitalised. And DBZ Managing Director Dr Samuel Bwalya says as of 2019, the bank disbursed almost K1.5 billion...

NATIONAL Council for Construction (NCC) acting executive director Ernest Nshindano says although government is trying its best to be cost reflective in infrastructure development, this should not produce sub standard results. In an interview, Tuesday, Nshindano said durability was key. "I think we as the National Council for Construction are aware about the need to...

ECONOMIST Trevor Hambayi says government's move to accord mines deductible mineral tax is a hopeful strategy but it might affect the budget extensively if it fails to work out. In an interview, Monday, Hambayi said he hoped the strategy would work. “The proposed tax revenue they were going to raise from mineral royalty tax was...

KONKOLA Copper Mines (KCM) has announced that its chief executive officer Christopher Sheppard has retired and will be leaving the company on November 12, 2021. In a statement, Tuesday, KCM provisional liquidator Milingo Lungu said Enock Mponda had been appointed as acting CEO and would also act as CEO for KCM SmelterCo Limited while Moses...

AGRICULTURE Minister Reuben Phiri says he will be shocked to see an increase in the price of mealie meal because the country has enough maize. In an interview, Phiri said it would not make sense to see an increase in mealie meal prices when the Food Reserve Agency had about a million tonnes of maize....

INFRASTRUCTURE, Housing and Urban Development Minister Charles Milupi says government has already started receiving bids for the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway costs lower than the $1.2 billion which was arrived at during the previous administration. In an interview, Milupi insisted that under the UPND administration, no road would cost $1.2 billion. He said his Ministry was...

MINISTER of Green Economy and Environment Collins Nzovu has emphasised the need for increased commitment in scaling-up mitigation and adaptation measures to combat climate change in the country. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, Monday, Nzovu was speaking when he held talks with the Ban Ki Moon Centre...

FORMER Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Christopher Mvunga says he took serious measures to protect the independence of the Central Bank when he was appointed. And Mvunga says while he did see huge withdrawals towards elections, they were normal because people were uncertain. He was commenting on remarks made by BoZ Governor Dr Denny Kalyalya...

INFRASTRUCTURE, Housing and Urban Development Minister Charles Milupi says the PF administration was giving out contracts without assessing whether resources were available. Speaking when he launched the National Association for Medium and Small Scale Contractors annual general meeting, Friday, Milupi assured small scale and medium contractors that government would start dismantling the debt owed to...

National Breweries managing director Martin Makomva says government's proposal to increase the specific excise duty on opaque beer will kill the traditional beer industry. In its 2022 budget, government has proposed to increase the specific excise duty on opaque beer to 50 ngwee per litre (packaged) and to one Kwacha for (unpackaged) from 15 ngwee,...