Magande Dies
Former Minister of Finance and National Planning, Hon. Ng’andu Peter Magande, 76, has died after a short illness.
Family members confirmed the death of Hon. Magande who has been hospitalised the last few weeks.
He served as Minister of Finance under Zambia’s third President, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa.
Magande, an economist, served as the Minister of Finance and National Planning of the Republic of Zambia from 2003 to 2008.
Recently Hon. Magande was promoting his book, a Memoir- “The Depth of My Footprints”.
It is about a five-year-old boy who tended cattle and watched over forlorn fields of millet in a remote and rugged area of the Zambezi Escarpment in southern Zambia and rose to become one of the most charismatic, powerful and intelligent Zambian Economist and global leader.
It is difficult to appreciate the enormous leap the boy made from humble beginnings to his leadership of an international mission representing the states of a third of the globe-the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), a group of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.
Magande served as a Member of Parliament for Chilanga Constituency from 2006 until 2010 and was member of the MMD and was member of the National Executive Committee and Chairperson of the Committee on Economy and Finance.
He attended Namaila, Chikankata and Munali Schools before going to the University of Zambia, where he graduated with a degree Economics and Mathematics in 1970.
He began his career in 1971 as a freshman in the civil service, and then left for Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he did a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics.
From 1972- 1980 he was an economist in the Ministry Of Rural Development, He was served as Secretary in the Department of Economics in the Zambia National Service.
He wss appointed as Director of Budget in the Ministry of Finance.
From 1983–1986, he served as Permanent Secretary for the Ministries Of Commerce, Industry & Trade, Ministry Of Decentralisation (Central Province), Ministry Of Agriculture & Rural Development, and the National Commission For Development Planning.
He was later reassigned into the parastatal sector from government service, from December 1986 – March 1991.
Magande served as Managing Director, Lima Bank Limited, a newly incorporated development bank. He then became Executive Director, Industrial Development Corporation Of Zambia (INDECO).
Between November 1991 -May 1993, he served as Managing Director of the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB), the largest commercial bank in Zambia; following that, Executive Director of the Zambia Industrial & Mining Company Ltd (ZIMCO).
In May 1994, he was retired from the Civil service and joined the private sector as a consultant.
In June 1994, he returned to government service as a Project Coordinator to the Ministry Of Agriculture, Food And Fisheries under technical assistance by the African Development Bank.
From July 1996 until February 2000, he served as the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean And Pacific Group of States (ACP), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
Between 2000 and 2003, he undertook consultancy work for various organisations, among them, SADC, COMESA, AU, UNDP, MEFMI, Maxwell Stamp, IMANI and the Governments of Zambia and Malawi.
Between July 2011 and May 2012, he was a member of a 23-person global think tank established by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) based in Washington DC USA on “The Future of the International Development Association (IDA)” of the World Bank.