THE banking sector recorded a huge increase in the demand for personal loans in the fourth quarter of 2020, partly triggered by a surge in requests to pay for tuition fees, according to a new BoZ Survey. According to the Bank of Zambia’s (BoZ) Credit Conditions Survey report for the fourth quarter of 2020, released...

KONKOLA Copper Mines Plc (KCM) is still receiving electricity from the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) without paying for the commodity, contrary to the Electricity Act, says CEC chief financial officer Mutale Mukuka. And Mukuka says assertions that the utility’s power tariffs are three times higher above what the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) authorises are not...

THE Zambia Chamber of Mines has elected its new president, Dr Godwin Beene, the First Quantum Minerals (FQM) government relations specialist, taking over from Goodwell Mateyo. And Dr Beene, a former Ministry of Mines permanent secretary, says Zambia’s mining industry will remain uncompetitive with the current mining fiscal regime, adding that there is need for...

THE Bank of Nevis International Limited, a commercial bank operating on the West Indian island of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, has bought a 24 per cent shareholding in Investrust Bank Plc, becoming the bank’s latest shareholder. According to a market announcement released via Stockbrokers Zambia Limited, the bank’s broker, the Bank of...

THREE miners’ unions have signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with Kalumbila Minerals Limited (KML) on behalf of more than 1,400 employees that will see unionised workers get an increased basic salary increment of K1,000 across the board. Speaking during the signing ceremony between KML and three mine unions in Kalumbila, Thursday, KML general manager...

KONKOLA Copper Mines Plc has announced that the first instalment of staff redundancy packages due to employees who had crossed over to the newly-created SmeltorCo Limited and Konkola Mineral Resources Limited were paid on March 25. In a management brief, KCM chief executive officer Christopher Sheppard stated that the first instalment of the redundancy packages...

ZAMBIA and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will resume virtual discussions on the outstanding issues relating to the economic bailout package on Tuesday, March 30 and continue into the first two weeks of next month. In a statement, Friday, Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba announced that talks between the Zambian government and the IMF...

ZNFU president Jervis Zimba says government’s decision to import onions despite banning the practise is meant to cushion the impact left by the huge exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Earlier this year, government restricted the importation of onions and table potatoes into Zambia, saying that the country was currently able to meet...

ECONOMIST Professor Oliver Saasa says Zambia still needs a debt management plan to help guide the path towards an International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic programme. In an interview, Prof Saasa said the presence of the debt management plan would provide comfort to the IMF as government continued its talks with the Fund. He said Zambia’s...

AVIATION expert and former Zambia Airways employee Captain Charles Musenge says this is not the right time forZambia to set up an airline given the current situation in the sector. But Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) chief executive officer Mateyo Kaluba has insisted that the national airline is expected to be launched between the second and...