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Former Deputy Finance Minister, Jonas Shakafuswa, has called on government to shift focus from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to the national budget as the main driver of Zambia’s development agenda.
Shakafuswa said Zambia should wake up to the utilisation of its full resources potential in order to develop itself.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, Shakafuswa argued that the country could not rely solely on CDF, which was a component of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development’s budget, to deliver national development.
The former Katuba lawmaker said government should identify and fund line ministries as drivers of national development to bring about the much needed progress.
“You can not only rely on CDF, a component of the budget of Ministry of Local Government to be a driver of national development,” Shakafuswa stated.
He proposed that Ministries be allowed to devolve and replicate themselves at constituency level to provide meaningful leadership and expertise to CDF.
Shakafuswa noted that Zambia pioneered CDF as a way of taking decision making on development to the people, and that countries which copied the model have gone further.
Read More: Civil group calls for nationwide audit of Zambia’s CDF spending
“Countries which copied from us have gone further devolving the functions of Ministries to operate at Constituency level. This has seen the immediate uplifting of people’s lives, as communities take charge of their welfare priorities,” he said.
The former Deputy Minister expressed concern that some components of CDF were now dictated from outside Constituency Ward Development Committees (WDCs).
“But today, some components of what CDF is applied on is dictated from outside the Constituency ward development committees, who should be the drivers. This is against the spirit with which CDF was created,” Shakafuswa stated.
He called for a bigger allocation to constituencies, saying Zambia can do better than the current K40 million publicised funding.
“Let us talk of K10 billion in the hands of each Constituency than a meager much publitised K40 million. We can improve and do better as a nation,” Shakafuswa said.
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