One
of the greatest opportunities for creating jobs for both skilled and unskilled
labor, gumboots to crocodile skin shoe-wearing workers, blue collar to white
collar, exists in the manufacturing industries.
At
independence, Zambia had nothing, Southern Rhodesia had everything. Zambia was
moving towards a more diversified economy during Dr Kaunda’s presidency than
now when we are importing carrots and potato chips. Admittedly, poor management
practice and government meddling amongst other reasons resulted in these
organizations becoming unprofitable. The formal sector has shrunk so much that
the viable tax base cannot sustain the national budget. Many people are now in
the informal sector and it is not easy to collect tax in this area. It is clear
therefore that we need to grow the formal employment sector.
One
of the things we need to seriously consider is to empower individuals in the same
informal sector. For example, I think we should move the industrious people
making furniture by the roadside in our cities, provide capital and help them
establish proper factories with them as major shareholders. Government, perhaps
through the Zambia Development Agency, would initially provide management
expertise, training and ensure quality improvement and consistency. Management
would be continuously scrutinized to prevent corruption and uphold worker
participation in decision-making. Over a period of time, these shareholders can
take full control of their operations and payback whatever resources provided
during start-up. There is a huge market for these people in our major stores
currently flooded with imported furniture.
Similarly,
rather than giving unproductive loans to individual marketeers, let us have a
pilot program where our women vegetable marketeers are as a group of
shareholders, like the above furniture manufacturers, helped to establish
Vegetable Supermarkets. In the end, some of them would become purchasing managers
sourcing produce from farmers. They would be trained in various professions
like accountancy, human resources, logistics, etc. They might in the future even expand their
operations where they have subsidiary companies growing their own produce,
processing it and perhaps, even exporting!
This could be done for our people in various trades such as those who make steel gates, door frames and window frames. This moves them from the informal to formal sector and thus make a positive effect on the country’s GDP and tax base.
