President Hakainde Hichilema has maintained that job creation remains a priority of the New Dawn Administration, stressing that the government’s economic and governance reforms are driven by a core mission: to offer opportunities that uplift every Zambian regardless of their political affiliation or background.
Addressing the Press at Statehouse this morning, President Hichilema emphasised that Government’s focus is on improving the lives of citizens by ensuring that economic growth translates into real jobs, enhanced skills and the formalisation of artisanal mining.
“We have a simple mission, single mindedness, to work hard, to work smart, all of us in our respective roles for one agenda only, one agenda only to offer opportunities to all our people, to better their lives. That’s our agenda. In all that we do,” he said.
“Since you put us in public office, we have a single mindedness, and that’s what I’ve just articulated; to work, to better the life of somebody, to create an opportunity for an additional job, because that additional job or employment will feed, eight family members, just one job.”
The President said the Country’s improved economic performance fueled by renewed market optimism, and debt restructuring has positioned Zambia to expand employment opportunities across multiple sectors.
“we are in a position where the country is now a meeting place for the East. They come to talk to do business with us. It is the hard work that we undertook to having acknowledged the difficulties we had,”President Hichilema said.
“Today, we are seeing a resurgence in investments, and I want to thank all our cooperating partners, all of them: Americans, Chinese, Europeans, British, Japanese, for coming to the table to help us resolve an intractable problem. Remember, we called it a mission impossible. If there’s anything we need to celebrate together as a nation, this is one of them.”
He said Government’s reforms have already created room for thousands of new public sector jobs, in education, health and defence.
“It was difficult to get a job in the public sector, but since we came in, we are advertising for jobs: nurses, teachers, doctors, the military. Collectively, we are nearing 100,000 of young people employed in four years, even with a debt burden, even with Covid and even with many challenges,” President Hichilema said.
The Head of State emphasized that every citizen is eligible for employment provided that they have the necessary qualifications, regardless of their place of birth.
“You don’t have to be born in a particular province to get a job. Let us be inclusive; when you see other Zambians now coming into the public sphere, we should cherish it, where do you want the to work? You want them to work in Malawi? We have moved from exclusion to inclusion and we must celebrate that,” President Hichilema emphasized.
The President stressed on the need to train citizens for opportunities, underscoring that skills development is a central pillar of employment creation.
“Skills training for those that may have no opportunity to go to college. They are Zambians. Skills training curriculum has been changed. Thank you, Minister of Education. A child who is good in plumbing must be allowed to go into plumbing early and must not be called a failure. These are the reforms. We want to create even more employment,” he said.
The President said Government is promoting formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) through initiatives that provide support services, training, and access to markets, to improve the livelihoods of the youth.
“Many governments grappled with how to deepen the benefits from the mining resource for the people of Zambia, starting from ZCM IH, our company. We’re increasing shareholding, which had gone low. Give an example, Mopani was around 20 to 25%. We’ve now renegotiated that to be 49% shareholders in Mopani and our partners, 51% as part of our deepening process,”The Head of State said.
“Many don’t see it. We see it, and we take an opportunity like this to share what we are doing to better your lives, that of your children, including the unborn ones. We have now managed to legislate what we call Local Content Bill to allow Zambian citizens to have more opportunities in the mining sector.”
He warned that informal and illegal operations can fuel insecurity, referencing patterns observed in neighboring countries.
“We want your support to see legal mining, safe mining, not polluting our environment, not damaging forests. We want you to earn more money. That’s why we are pushing market opportunities to buy off, especially for artisanal miners who are vulnerable,”President Hichilema said.
“let’s not create militias in the mining areas, where, in eastern DRC( Democratic Republic of Congo), a 13 year old boy keeps a gun in the house and probably has already killed 3, 4, 5 people. That’s what illegal mining areas can breed. We’ve already seen it in Kikonge, in Mufumwe, Kasempa and Mpika. We call for your support as citizens to structure, to formalize our activities. We have your back. These minerals are yours. We would like to do to our miners, what Arabs have done to their oil.”
The Head of State also discouraged the selling of artisanal licenses but instead encouraged partnerships to support and adopting sustainable mining practices to improve livelihoods.
With mining being one of the sectors targeted for formalisation, the President indicated that formalisation is a national effort designed to improve incomes, expand social protection and create sustainable employment.
