Assist heavily-indebted civil servants - ZCTU

Civil servants are going through tough times, as transport and rental charges are high, hence the need for Government to intervene. - Mr Nondo

GOVERNMENT should introduce a loan scheme to run by side by side with debt swap to help indebted civil servants, Zambian Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has suggested.

ZCTU Muchinga Province Coordinator, Kasanda Nondo, said Government should expedite the implementation of debt swap so as to provide a relief to highly indebted civil servants.

He said many servants’ pay slips are “crowded” with loans from various leading institutions and therefore provision of soft loans to workers going for further studies would prevent them from contracting more debts.

Mr Nondo said the loan facility would help civil servants build houses.

"Building a house is very expensive using own salary, so helping a civil servant with building materials will go a long way," Mr Nondo said.

He said it was important to involve stakeholders and plan how to implement the debt swap plan.

"Civil servants are waiting to see how payslips can be cleaned and where to get cheaper loans to go to school and build houses," he said.

Mr Nondo said civil servants were going through tough times, as transport and rental charges were high, hence the need for Government to intervene.

"We have no doubt the PF Government can do debt swap, give cheaper loans and increase salaries to motivate the civil service," Mr Nondo said.