ZAMBIAN YOUTHS EMULATE KENYAN YOUTHS, ANDYFORD BANDA WRITES …
Zambia’s Youths, Emulate Kenyan youths who have rejected higher taxes and more debt accumulation
The controversial finance bill in Kenya which is being rejected by the majority driven by the Gen-Z revolution is not different from what we are seeing in Zambia. In essence the idea of the bill is to raise taxes on a number of items so that the money raised can be pushed back in the economy that is if it will with rampant abuse and corruption. That’s very wrong.
In Zambia the idea is that let’s go round the world and auction as many mines as possible, a few jobs will be created, when we get to the target of producing 3 million tons of copper per year we will have enough taxes to push in the economy.
That’s where the formula of African economics misses it. For starters there is no chance government taxes will bring development.
Secondly by the time you hit 3 million tons and after auctioning all the mines, population growth won’t wait for you while foreigners are taking out their profits leaving you with meagre resources to deal with the needs of a larger population.
What we need is to build local enterprises so that when they make that profit they can reinvest within the local economy as opposed to repatriating to other foreign lands. That’s when development will happen faster. No two ways.
I am not sure what’s so difficult to understand this simple formula by African leaders. America, Europe, China, Japan and the gulf states all have local enterprises in additional to sending capital to poor countries in Africa to import more profits. Why do we think we will develop Africa or Zambia by relying on foreigners ?
In fact nowadays with technology for example in the mines, systems are highly mechanized requiring very little human intervention. Mining companies are making more profits than before needing no incentives which we have given in Zambia. So all the profits which should be reinvested in Zambia if it was a locally owned mine are being repatriated to develop the home economies of these multinational companies. The ratio is 30/70. 30 remains (if its paid) and 70 repatriated.
We should therefore stop being brain washed and wake up. Let’s stop the pull him down syndrome and celebrate all the local businesses and support them as much as we can. It’s better to have our own local millionaires than foreign. Don’t be jealous your children will need to find jobs in the future and the economy can only grow and be strong by having a significant local people participate in it. Don’t be too Americanized or stuff like that, support local industries.
All we need is a system that lets everyone regardless of political or tribal affiliation succeed. We need a system that gives chance to all and let the best ideas flourish.
“We should not lessen our efforts to get the money we really need. It would be more appropriate for us to spend time in the villages showing the people how to bring about development through their own efforts rather than going on so many long and expensive journeys abroad in search of development money.” – President Julius Nyerere
These IMF and World Bank people pretend like they dont know why we are poor, they know. Abash colonial economic systems and in solidarity #REJECTFINANCEBILLINKENYA2024