Former Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) Spokesperson Antonio Mwanza says employment creation in the informal sector has increased by 37 per cent in the last seven years of the Patriotic Front administration.

Mwanza who is now ruling PF deputy media director said this when he featured on UNZA radio’s Lusaka Star magazine where he described the infrastructure development under his party as mammoth.

“The Patriotic front has not been in power for not even 10 years, it has been barely seven years now from 2011. But if you look at the development that the party and the government has put so far in the last seven years, it’s mammoth. Let’s for instance look at the issue of jobs, when the PF took over office in 2011, we had less than one million Zambians in formal employment. But now, we have a total of over 1.1 million Zambians who are employed in the formal sector, these are permanent and pensionable jobs with very good working conditions. That is a success that the Patriotic Front has scored,” Mwanza said.

“In the last seven years of the Patriotic Front, their is a 37% increase in the jobs that have been created in the informal sector. In the household sector for instance, cumulatively we have created over 900,000 jobs that have been created since PF came into office in 2011. As we are speaking right now, a lot of people have been complaining about the Mazabuka – Kafue road, the Africa Development Bank has already signed an agreement with the government of the Republic of Zambia and they have the feasibility studies and everything and once pen and paper is put together, that road will be done because the funding has already been secured.”

And Mwanza said the government had also prioritised the diversification of the country’s economy from copper dependence to agriculture in order to grow the economy and create wealth amongst citizens.

“For the last 20 years, the agricultural sector has not been given the priority that it deserves to be given, the priority has been so much on mining. But us as the Patriotic Front we realise that first of all, the mines are not owned by Zambians. So as a government that wanted to see areas of growth, we have identified agriculture to be the main area of growth were we can create more jobs, more opportunities and create more wealth for our people,” said Mwanza.