Stakeholders react to Grow Zambia agenda

The Grow Zambia agenda presents an opportunity to deepen manufacturing linkages with agriculture, mining, energy and other sectors, the Zambia Association of Manufacturers has said.

ZAM President Mohammed Umar said the next five years should focus on growth, expansion, opportunity and prosperity, underpinned by stronger collaboration with the private sector.

In a statement issued in Lusaka on Wednesday, Umar said between 2021 and June 2026, the sector accounted for USD7.33 billion, or 38.5 percent, of ZDA’s actualised investments, the highest of any sector, and generated 46,759 jobs.

He also said the sector’s contribution to GDP had risen to approximately 9 percent, and that economic stability should now be translated into greater productive capacity, value addition and exports.

“Achieving its ambitious targets will require stronger domestic industrial capacity to process raw materials, manufacture inputs, build local supply chains and capture greater value from Zambia’s resources,” Umar said.

Meanwhile, Women for Change and the Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) have called on President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration to deliberately place women and girls at the centre of the Grow Zambia agenda.

Women for Change Executive Director, Lumba Siyanga also welcomed the President’s call for national unity and reconciliation, noting his recognition that those who voted differently were not enemies.

“However, from a Women for Change gender and social justice perspective, economic growth must be inclusive, equitable and deliberately gender-responsive. Women constitute a significant proportion of small-scale farmers, informal traders, entrepreneurs and caregivers,” she said.

Similary, NGOCC Board Chairperson, Beauty Katebe said the new term offers an opportunity to build on previous efforts and deepen an inclusive agenda that leaves no Zambian behind.

“NGOCC therefore calls on the President to use the provision for eleven nominated parliamentary seats to deliberately and strategically increase the number of women in the National Assembly, in line with Zambia’s constitutional provisions and international commitments to gender parity, including the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development,” Katebe said.

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