NDOLA-LUSAKA DUAL CARRIAGEWAY PROJECT – WHY ARE WE ABUSING NAPSA FUNDS TO FUND GRZ INFRASTUCTURE PROJECTS?
By Shalala Oliver Sepiso
When I started writing about NAPSA reforms and why cabinet was too slow in helping get the new NAPSA law over the line to meet one of President Hakainde Hichilema’s campaign promises, I got calls from senior people who thought I was fighting government. I told them I was instead protecting the nation’s interests and also ensuring that my president doesn’t fail or is not seen to be failing. I am not in any way claiming credit for the NAPSA reforms but I am one of those who highlighted the issue.
When I wrote about the need to either reform or remove from the scene the useless and incompetent Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Zambia, my colleague Ngobola Cengelo Muyembe and others attacked me for being a stooge for capital and to an extent foreign interests even though I have been asking for a local alternative to IDC. I have always spoke for Zambia and always worked for Zambian companies or Zambian capital. Never for foreigners.
When I spoke about the ills of Indo Zambia Bank, the directors from that bank called me and said I was not telling the truth. However, days and weeks later, a lot has changed in Indo Zambia Bank. I will tell you about that soon. So the writing I do, though I know can get me attacked, is for the good of the country especially that I am a UPND and HH Praise Singer, more than 100% of the time.
But it is the Ndola-Lusaka Dual carriageway project which I have been writing about for the longest time and that is where we have not seen progress. The worst party about this project is that all the information coming out is that we are on the wrong path. RDA, PPP Council and Ministry of Infrastructure all seem hell-bent on giving it to the Chinese through AVIC even though their bid was inferior, did not meet compliance and has arrogantly disrespected the government during negotiations. Of course we know the role that China plays in our debt restructuring but do we have to sell our birthright over this deal? No. We need to negotiate the best possible deal. If not let us walk away and do this road ourselves. You will thank me later.
I have issues with this project and no one should accuse me of fighting Hon Charles Milupi or the PPP Council or anyone who is working on this project. I want to understand why we Zambians think it is ok for us to continue to abuse NAPSA and Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board (WCFCB) funds to fund GRZ infrastructure projects?
I also want to understand why we are ok with handing over millions of money that come from the toll-gates on this road even before the Chinese invest a coin in the project.
We have to remember that President Hakainde Hichilema’s ten year stay in office will have a legacy made around two projects and two projects only: The Solwezi to Sesheke Dual-Carriageway and the Katoka Gorge Hydropower Dam project. These two projects are game changers. Batoka will banish loadshedding for good and will give Zambia a huge advantage when it comes to exports of power to Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa. This will strengthen the Kwacha while bringing in the needed forex. The road will not only speed up movement and economic activities along the line of rail but will also open up business for many enterprises including suppliers, contractors, financers etc. This can only mean a bigger and better economic and improvement of the Human Development Index score for Zambia.
So why should anyone allow the Ministry of Infrastructure, RDA and PPP Council to mess the legacy of both president HH and the UPND by not taking these serious issues into consideration?
NAPSA should not be used in financing this road. Where NAPSA has to be used to fund because we have no choice and NAPSA has to invest to raise funds for pensioners, NAPSA needs to be an equity partner in the project and not just a lender to AVIC. Why should AVIC come into Zambia build a road using our money which it already found in Zambia and then externalise all profits while also stopping National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) and the Treasury from getting the money they have always gotten from the toll-gates on this road? And remember this is the most lucrative road in Zambia!
For your information, NFRA already borrowed funds from NAPSA for building the existing toll-gates and roads and hasn’t had it easy to pay back to NAPSA. NRFA is already unable to cope with what it already owes Napsa on Road funding! NRFA has been paying NAPSA every month except there is a government-driven agenda to renegotiate the facility and make it easier for NRFA. So there is already proof that roads are not totally profitable for investment.
For us Zambians to see that the Ministry of Infrastructure, PPP Council and RDA are working, we need to see them luring Foreign Direct Investment into this project. Instead we are seeing these entities taking study tours of other countries to learn how PPP projects are being done. What we need are not those trips but solutions. Using NAPSA funds is robbing pensioners.
The ideal situation should have been where AVIC was signed up to start building their own toll gates on roads which they upgrade or start themselves. This would leave RDA and NRFA to enjoy their sweat. And so the most painful things about this project is that we shall handover an existing road – a brown field and going concern – to a foreign entity and they will start making money the moment we sign even before they mobilise. As things are it looks like they will take over the whole Lusaka to Kasumbalesa stretch and mint from the toll gates even before they do any works on the proposed dual-carriage way.
Guess what? NRFA makes more than K100 million per month on this road. Do we want the Zambian treasury to lose this to the Chinese contractor who is bringing in no foreign direct investment? This is manna from heaven for the contractor, who has even refused to do the road in full within the first ten years. Had they agreed to do the road within the first two years, I would feel better about handing over Zambia’s best performing road to a foreign entity, who will walk in with papers but will go away with trunks and trunks of cash accumulated over 25 years of the concession.
What is wrong with us Zambians kanshi? Who bewitched us?
When this happens, the National Road Fund Agency will be a weaker and diminished government entity. Surely we want our citizens working for NRFA to lose jobs? It is a fact that toll collectors will have to be paid redundancy packages and lose their jobs. And we know that in the end fewer toll collectors will be employed by AVIC. Those who won’t be taken on by AVIC will lose their jobs for good and there is nothing we can do about that. And we know that AVIC will have their own pricing structure for tolls which will be much higher since they want to make huge profits. Will the citizens love this as the legacy for UPND and the president?
Information I have is that since I last wrote on this project, the scope of the road project has been reduced and mobilisation will be in March this year. I hope we won’t lose so much in quality and quantity to satisfy the Chinese. Can we for us trust ourselves and do this road if we have to use Zambian money?
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