VISA FREE ENTRY INTO ZAMBIA NEEDS A SERIOUS RE-THINK!
27 December 2024
New Heritage Party agrees with Citizens First President, Harry Kalaba, that the allowance of visa-free entries by Government into Zambia by a further 53 countries, is detrimental to our country. We take note that an initial 100 countries were granted this status under the current Government. The approach being taken by Government is:
1. Trying to resolve a complex problem with a very simplistic approach
This approach of supposedly boosting our tourism sector, is unfounded and not based on any sound research. Although visa-fees into Zambia were and are considered high, they are not the only factor that affect the tourists flow to this destination. Other factors and which carry more weight, include, high accommodation and food costs, high corruption by our traffic police, attitude by our frontline boarder personnel, poor infrastructure, to name but a few. Simply abolishing visa fees without attending to these other issues, will just not answer to the problem trying to be resolved.
2. Compromising Zambia’s security
The application of Visas enables the host country to do a due diligence upon the applicant individual. They are not meant to be a routine process. The Visa questionnaire has been carefully designed to sieve ordinary visitors from undesirable persons. They may not be 100% full proof, but they give a first line of defence to the process of protecting undesirables from entering or using the country as a base for criminal or even terrorist activities.
3. Depriving the country of much needed foreign exchange.
It is a worldwide recognised practice that Visas come at a cost and thus paid for using foreign currency. Zambia is desperately short of foreign currency and by abolishing fees at the now 167 cumulative number of countries that will not need to pay Visas fees means that we have cut off a perfectly acceptable source of foreign exchange.
What needs to be done?
• Visa fees needed to be revised downwards (not completely abolished) to enable them to be comparable with those in the region. This would ensure that some foreign exchange would still be earned whilst maintaining the security integrity of our country.
• Government needs to seriously address the issues that negatively affect our tourism industry as mentioned above.
Conclusion
If Government needs to open our boarders, they should do so, firstly with all our African Union (AU) partners in order to promote intra-African trade. As far as the New Heritage Party is concerned, there is much gain to be had by taking the Pan-African approach than what the government is doing, courting nations that we do not derive benefit from.
In addition, the Government needs to focus on issues that matter to the common Zambians. High cost of living, high fuel prices, the high foreign exchange rate, the lack of medicines in health facilities as well as the high levels of corruption that has continued to dog this nation.
CHISHALA KATEKA
President – New Heritage Party
UKA- Member