HABAZOKA IN DENIAL TO UNDERSTAND UPND’S ECONOMIC MODEL- Mark Simuuwe

HABAZOKA IN DENIAL TO UNDERSTAND UPND’S ECONOMIC MODEL

By Mark Simuuwe

I have read some article by Lubinda Habazoka,making rounds on social media .

Habazoka , while campaigning for PF in 2021 , giving PF strategies was caught on camera working on how to cheat citizens on the sinking economy and defending overborrowing at that time , said it is difficult for any country to manage to restructure the debt ; when Zambia has managed to get the deal today , he says $15bn is peanut . But he has no solutions just like PF, who have no answers to the mess they created .

He is busy talking of home grown economy which is already UPND’s economic model of avoiding economic centralism by devolution. This is what has made government use CDF as a devolved economic model .

He also seems ignorant as to why we are training SMEs and offering skills training in metal fabrication, General agriculture , Fish Farming , Carpentry, Metal fabrication for free and also free education. Once these are offered , we have human capital growth . This is the formula which helped China under the “big Contract “. They had to improve human capital and created food security using citizens as the main players.

We can now give Agro loans as we have started effective this year as a way of creating micro-economic stability at household level . We are also giving Market booster loans, empowering women , and youth , while conducting SMEs skills training in a graduating manner .

We also now going to have skilled SMEs who will understand running business in a competitive market .

We shall also have an educated community which will be innovative using free education .

We continue opening up for FDI and encourage partnerships with Zambians to stimulate growth , while reducing on capital flight through using home made products in industrial economic zones , to also reduce on the cost of transportation.

This is why we have a $138 million fertilizer plant to produce 300,000 metric tones of Urea fertilizer once at full capacity , and 700,000 metric tonnes of D -compound.

While all these are taking place , we have a robust monitoring mechanism looking at Challenges and successes for improved and efficient undertakings.

My view is that UPND is coming up with an economic model that will require mindset change from PF way of thinking to the 21st century way of running an economy , where you make running of the country as a project tied to specific goals and deliverables.

Right now we are working on mindset change to make citizens understand that an economy must be grown by citizens and growing is a process the same way we grow plants before the yield . And to do that requires many players , with the necessary skills and Identifying the right plants , suitable for the market .

We have no doubt that the path we have taken is a solution to Zambia. We want Zambians to own the economy and be the ones to control the economy.

As to use of Suigilite to pay debt ; Habazoka has not conducted any research to tell the country how much suigilite the country has . Why did he tell PF to do that when he was their advisor but defended overborrowing.

Mining is not like gardening . There are explorations done to ascertain the lifespan and presence of desired mineral.

Habazoka has forgotten that exploration was last done in the 1970s as presented in the National Bidget for 2024.

To this effect , government allocated resources towards conducting a national wide mineral exploration so that we know what we have , what we have exploited already, and how we can exploit the remaining resources in a sustainable way or without depriving the future .