ZAMBIA - THE SOLUTION

THERE is not a single problem on Earth without a solution. So if you are battling a problem today or at any one time and you think that the end of the world has come, you seem to be getting nowhere, just realise that overcoming your own ignorance about the solution is the solution.

Problems and solutions coexist, they are two sides of one thing.

Whenever you have a problem, look at it carefully, you will see its solution.

Differently put, challenges are opportunities. It just depends on your mindset.

Similarly, the economic challenges that Zambia is facing will end when we, Zambians, first understand their genesis origins and, following this, we address this source.

The end to our economic difficulties lies in their origins. Our understanding this is our redemption.

All Zambians need to know that there are ery specific ways of having money.

It is either you are an employer, employee both in the private and public sectors, you are in business, you are a wife (from husband), you are a child (from parents), you are a student (from loans or bursaries) or you are a criminal (theft, prostitution and the like).

Note that when a societal environment does NOT conduce to having money legally vice and crime amongst citizens in that society will necessarily increase as they strive for survival.

Money never comes from magic, wearing charms around one's waist, having a pastor lay his hands on you or going to the mountain, God knows whatever happens there.

People need money in their pockets.

Money is what makes goods and services to be tradeable, for these things to change hands or be offered consumed.

Money is merely a medium of exchange.

This total quantity and overall exchange of goods and services in a given community is then what is called its economy.

Zambia's economy at the moment is ill, very ill. This disease that has terribly af icted our economy is largely a framework problem.

Take the following reasons as an eye-opening explanation. I use them only for illustrative and guidance purposes. I pray that they pique your curiosity.

A lot of Zambians today remain finance illiterate.

They do not really know what money is, what gives it value, how to make it and use it.

This is largely because of our educational curricula which lack modules on entrepreneurial basics or fundamentals of business management at the primary school level, as well as the over-reliance by citizens on the government which Dr Kenneth Kaunda and UNIP created and maintained for three decades.

This must change. Grade 7 graduates or Zambia's graduates of primary school must know how to manage a cash ow and the basics of project management. At present, Zambia largely has noncreative citizens who are merely job-seekers.

Access to money in Zambia from lending institutions remains prohibitive.

The banks sell the money that they have at very expensive rates.

his eeps a significant fraction of citizens out of the economy.

Zambia's lending rates must fall to enable the entry of more citizens into the SMEs pool. This will partly happen when we begin to import less and export more. To increase remittances, let us export our labour (human resource) to the region and beyond through well-structured bilateral agreements.

For as long as over 60 percent of meaningful companies registered and doing business in Zambia are foreign, Zambians will forever be poor.

The converse ought to prevail. Over 60 percent of all meaningful companies in Zambia must be owned by citizens.

For as long as over 60 percent of overall government expenditure is on foreign companies, Zambians will forever remain poor.

The converse must prevail. Over 60 percent of the total government expenditure must be on local, citizen-owned companies.

Government should prioritise the dismantling of this form of debt especially if those owed are citizens. This directly puts money in citizens' pockets and increases consumer spending which, in turn, helps grow the economy.

Zambia must stop spending borrowed money on companies belonging to the money-lenders.

In the near future, we must see a reversal of the subcontracting policy.

Zambian companies should be the ones with the 80 percent share of the contract and foreign companies should be given the 20 percent for reasons, perhaps, of technical capacity only.

The current scenario is a form of fraud. Zambia is being financially conned.

In the current state, malls countrywide are commodity markets for foreign countries and remain powerful platforms for capital ight because o er percent of goods and services traded in them are foreign besides over 60 percent of them, in terms of size, being foreign owned (here consider the added negative impact of tax rebates).

In the near future, Zambia must have over 60 percent of all goods and services in these malls locally produced.

There is no alternative to production. Zambia must begin to produce goods and services for both the domestic market and export, both in their raw form and with translated (commonly said to be added) value. Note that value is never added, it is merely translated.

For sustainability reasons, the economic behaviour of Zambia ought to necessarily be a re ection of the deficit and demand patterns of its neighbours (SADC, COMESA) and beyond (China, South Africa, Russia, India, Brazil, Nigeria, European Union, US).

Both growing the overall quantity of goods and services and expansion of existing ones, and increasing exports in the face of decreasing imports, and with over 60 percent ownership of all this economic framework by citizens of Zambia, will end poverty.

This then, is the Canisius BANDA Percentage Economic Theorem to Ending Poverty (PETEP) anywhere (in-country poverty) in the world.

Further, note that citizens must never be over-taxed for them to remain healthy players in any economy.

The threshold of taxation must fall far below 60 percent (all taxes cumulatively) of all income earned per citizen.

Over-taxing citizens reduces consumer spending and this subsequently contracts an economy, and causes as well as worsens poverty.

In the end, Zambia's poverty will be ended by Zambians. Period.

Foreigners will always make money in foreign lands for the benefit of their homelands.

The current foreign nature of our economy is inimical to the interests of citizens and it is a veritable danger to our national security.

Just consider the following:

1. Retail shops (Burundians, Rwandese, South Africans, Indians)

2. Cement (Nigerian, Chinese, Europeans)

3. Blocks and pavers (Somalians and Lebanese)

4. Foodstuffs such as beef, poultry and pork (Europeans, Kenyans, Somalians, South Africans)

6. Construction (Chinese, South Africans, Europeans)

. o ernance ser ices NGOs (Americans, Europeans)

8. Mining (Chinese, Indians, Europeans)

9. Tourism (Europeans)

10. Seed (Europeans, Americans)

11. Finance (Europeans, Nigerians, South Africans)

Following such a thorough forensic audit of who is who in the Zambian economy, a big, gigantic question will then arise: 'Where are the Zambians? What are they doing?'

Sadly, excluding the civil ser ice, you will find them in churches, bars, working as labourers, troubling better-off relatives or friends for money or in political parties making useless noises.

Things must change.

And they will.

Indeed, poverty in Zambia will end.

We will end it.

Hope remains.

We pray.