AfDB moots $2bn for women-owned enterprises

If food production is not increased in whatever form, then man would starve.

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) will enter into a partnership with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) to unlock about US$2 billion in loans to women-owned Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the region.

AfDB will sign the partnership through Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme by working with financial institutions to enhance their ability to lend to women.

Donor and private sectorsupport for the overall

AFAWA initiative is helping the institution set ambitious targets for AFAWA Guarantee for Growth program.

This is according to Vanessa Moungar, AfDB Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society.

Ms Moungar said: “the entire Bank ecosystem would be at play - inviting more financial institutions to sign into the program - ensuring engagement, implementation, and ownership at the market and policy levels.”

AFAWA’s Coordinator, Esther Dassanou, there was an urgent need to improve

Monday the enabling environment with the right 4, January regulations 2021 in place,

Monday to sustainably de-risk the segment.

Ms Dassanou said AfDB would work with regulators to reform the legal and regulatory frameworks affecting women businesses’ access to finance.

“The Guarantee for Growth is also expected to reach an average of 18,000 women small and medium enterprises and create 80,000 direct jobs,” she said.

African Guarantee Fund’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Jules Ngankam, said: “as the implementing partner of AFAWA’s Guarantee for Growth program, we are already observing an increased appetite from banks for this innovative product that seeks to support women entrepreneurs.

“We have recently signed agreements with leading banks on the continent who are keen to increase their women SMEs portfolio.”

NAIROBI - The National Treasury will pay domestic investors close to US$1 billion this year, raising fears of refinancing risks should the market become jittery.

This represents 83.9 percent of the total amortisation - a way to pay off debt in equal installments.

Most of the domestic debt to be paid as outlined in the 2021 Medium Term Debt Management Strategy is Treasury bills, or short-term debt instruments with a tenor of less than a year.

External debt accounts for US$194.7 million of the total repayment.

“The profile shows a relatively smooth repayment structure, with maturities spread out in future years except for peaks in 2024 and 2028 relating to international sovereign bonds,” said Treasury.

By end of March alone, Treasury is expected to make a hefty payout of US$410 million to local investors, according to an analysis by investment firm Genghis Capital.

Churchill Ogutu, the head of research at Genghis Capital, noted that the elevated maturities will support liquidity in the market.

“Maturities in the first quarter of 2021 total US$410.1 million against a quarterly average of US$293.7 million in the last half of 2020,” read part of a report unveiled by Genghis Capital in Nairobi last month.

A big chunk of the loans will be refinanced - meaning Treasury will borrow to repay the maturing loans.

The payments add to the fiscal burden that Treasury has been grappling with, owing to a tough business environment that has seen tax revenues dwindle.

As a result, the National Treasury has fallen behind in the disbursement of cash to the county governments by two months. – THE STANDARD, Kenya.

Everywhere in the world the population has grown and it is this rising population that need to be fed by the farmer. If food production is not increased in whatever form, then man would starve. The acreage of cereals which is the main source of food and other basic foodstuffs must be increased and the method of cultivation intensified.

This equally applies to increased production of domestic animals and this can be met by an increase in the size of herds or flock, and their pastures this would equally make a rise in productivity and by control of animal diseases. Prevention and treatment of diseases must therefore be complementary to other measures to increase food production.

The animal owner must therefore be provided with the information necessary to prevent and cure disease, for it is only with the help that animal production can be extended. The extension staff have to play this role.

In most cases the farmer often has to make do without veterinary assistance. Advice on the recognition, treatment and prevention of animal diseases must be given.it is through such advice that even the farmer would avoid getting infected with animal diseases.

We always say that “Hygiene is preventive medicine”. Therefore, prevention means simply the avoidance of diseases by cleanliness. The farmer handles his animals almost on daily basis. It is in this situation that if he is not careful may end up contracting animal diseases. Hence, the issue of “ZOONOSIS” today.

Zoonosis refers to the issue of animal disease(s) that can be transmitted to man. And in our situation the farmer, livestock farmer handling farm animals is at risk.

The consumer in the urban area does not know what the farmer goes through to produce that meat, milk etc. let us start with tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is a chronic, wasting, non-febrile, contagious and infectious disease of all animals. Zambia is not spared from this disease. However, animals, birds, and man each has its own strain. Tuberculosis in cattle easily affect man and vice versa. However, with avian tuberculosis still get bovine tuberculosis.

Man or the farmer gets infected when handling an animal such as a dairy cow producing milk. It is through this milk that man picks up this infection. That is why for all dairy farms milking animals have to und ergo TB testing every now and then. This is to avoid passing on the disease to man and the milk loving population. Milk is the greatest danger to man. Tuberculosis in cows is similar to human tuberculosis but it is less severe.

Direct infection from a cow suffering from tuberculosis usually it is through inhaling organisms when the cow coughs. Eating infected meat, muscle tissue is very rarely affected. It is therefore, important that meat inspection watches closely for tuberculosis.

Rabies, farmers do keep dogs for security reasons, and so are the urban and rural dwellers. Dogs are part of domesticated animals on the part of the farmer. However, these animals (dogs) can be a threat to the good living of the people in any community or settlement where they live with their masters. Rabies has no cure but can be prevented as long as dogs are taken for vaccination every time they are due for this treatment. Man gets infected through dog bites that is if that dog is rabid. Cats and cows cannot be excluded from transmitting this disease to man. A rabid dog would have the virus five days in its saliva before it starts showing signs of being rabid.

For man once bitten the virus can stay in an incubation stage for about twelve months on average about two to six months. The virus travels along the nerves. Therefore, the further the bite from the head the longer the incubation. Such an association of the disease with its symptoms may be lost because of long time.

Action to take if bitten, scrub wound with soap (washing powder) and water. At the clinic they may irrigate hole with syringe treatment, in animals’ live organism vaccine is used and in human dead organism and so bigger and more vaccine.

Rabies is the worst zoonosis as far as man and domesticated animals are concerned. In the wild, wild dogs and foxes are carriers of this disease. Contact with such animals when touring game areas must be avoided. Ringworms is a fungal infection which is characterized by loss of hair, the area may also be very itchy. Each animal has its own kind of ringworm. Human ringworm is most infectious to man but people also get cow ringworm and cat/dog ringworm. On the farms people get local irritation because of being infected from cows and spreading the ringworm. To avoid getting this disease people and indeed the farmer must practice good hygiene and be cautious when treating animals. It is spread by contact.

There are many other livestock diseases that can be transmitted to man. But here only three have been mentioned. They can cause severe sickness and even death. Zoonosis, the transmission of disease from animal to human. Through good hygiene and proper handling we can avoid getting infected with such diseases from the animals we keep or rear.

1. Introduction I

HAVE read the Press Statement of one Obvious Summerton Mwaliteta, Lusaka Province Chairman for UPND.

The statement is entitled “Kopulande must concentrate on his failed adoption process in Chembe.” Obviously, I assume that is because the Statement is written and signed off under Mr. Mwaliteta’s official party position and title, what is expressed therein is the official position of the UPND, or was he just being overzealous as usual, the character that has gotten him in conflict with the law in the past?

2. Cyber bullying

Obviously, Mr.Mwaliteta picked on me for target of his venomous attacks and unsubstantiated allegations based on some audio that has been circulating on social media, ostensibly produced and issued by me when in fact NOT. I have received all manner of invectives on several social media platforms as a result of the same audio where some other person’s voice has been mistaken for my voice. I have suffered extreme cyber bullying in the last few days, including the one by Mr. Mwaliteta, an experience like no other in my many years of service to the people of Zambia. The truth, to put it in plain and simple language for him and those of his like who are just too lazy to do their homework before they open their mouths, that audio was NOT produced by me, period.

3. Need for Truth

If indeed Mr. Mwaliteta was interested in establishing the truth before acting impulsively in the manner he did, he should have played that audio to his UPND Members of Parliament who, for the last four-and-half years, have heard me debate serious national issues on the floor of Parliament, with passion and love for my country, every corner of it and every citizen in it, always seeking the best for our people across the entire country. The Honourable UPND MPs could have told Mr. Mwaliteta straight to his face that the voice in the audio was very far from being mine! They would have told him that I never go “always yapping without substance”. At every point, I speak with facts and passion as I represent the people of Chembe in fulfillment of the mandate and honour they gave me in 2016 to represent them in Parliament and to be their advocate for their development needs as I seek answers to the challenges that face them on a daily basis.

4. Development Chembe since 2016

Today, since independence 56 years ago, the people of Chembe have witnessed unprecedented development delivered by the

Patriotic Front Government. They have had schools built and extended; they have a Mini Hospital and other health facilities built, extended or rehabilitated; they have seen communication towers go up getting the entire Constituency connected; they have new markets built in all the Wards giving our mothers decent places to trade from; Chembe has street lights; there is piped running water in addition to numerous boreholes that have been sank in all the Wards to provide safe drinking water and for other household needs.

Cooperatives have been created to accelerate economic empowerment and some of these have received livestock such as chickens and goats; school going girls do not miss class anymore because they receive free sanitary pads from their Member of Parliament.

The two major roads in the Constituency have been funded by the listening and responsive PF Government. Contractors have moved on site awaiting end of rains to commence major earthworks but minor works and others such as installation of culverts are in progress in readiness for the major earthworks; a new town is under construction with various infrastructure projects at an advanced stage; township roads have been done and continue to be done; electricity has been extended to previously unserved areas off the main road; the people enjoy exciting football tournaments sponsored by their Member of Parliament twice a year for their entertainment, hand washing facilities in schools and markets have been provided by the MP to avert the spread of Covid-19 etc, etc. And all these and others too numerous to mention, in only four-and-half years since I became the first Member of Parliament, the Pathfinder for Chembe. I am proud of my record and need not have Mr. Mwalitea’s approval or endorsement.

5. The Rush for Chembe

So, my dear Mr. Mwaliteta, what are you talking about when you have never even stepped a foot in Chembe? Yes, there are many so-called aspiring candidates wanting to take the mantle from me; it is called democracy and that is the name of the game! However, take time and ask some of these candidates which Primary School in Chembe they went to, who their classmates were, who their parents are and where exactly they lived, who their blood relatives in Chembe are so they can be properly identified! You see, there are those little black-and-white birds we call “tu katyetye mwenda mwalimwa”; those opportunists who only go to fields after the same have been cultivated by someone else. What have these people done for Chembe before this season? Do they know when and how Chembe became a District and later a Constituency and who was behind that? Do they know when and how Chembe Primary School grew to become Chembe Secondary School and who was behind that? Do they know how electricity got to Chembe and who was behind that? Do they know when and how the bridge on the Luapula River on the border with DRC was built and who was behind that? What exactly do they know about Chembe?

6 Prospects for my re-election in Chembe

Adoption is the preserve of the Party I belong to, the Patriotic Front under the leadership of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. The leadership know what I have done in Chembe as well as my performance in the House and outside at times when my contribution was needed. I am therefore, not working to get adopted, I am working to deliver on my mandate and leave other issues to those responsible for them to make the necessary decisions when the time comes for them to do so. That is my attitude towards these things and I do not understand why the interest in my adoption from a person who is not even a member of my Party!

As regards my prospects for re-election in Chembe if I am adopted, which I am confident will be the case, that is obviously the prerogative of the people of Chembe; they are the arbiters and will chose amongst all the contending parties. I have served them to the best of my ability, against all odds. I may not have done everything the people wanted but development is a process and not an event. Rome was not built in a day and neither can I meet all the people’s needs in one term of service.

Nevertheless, I am proud of my record which the people of Chembe can all see with their own eyes. They know what was there before and they can see what is there now and I will tell them what will follow soon according to our vision as a Party and Government; it is for them to choose between reality and fake promises devoid of any evidence.

In his usual verbal escapade, driven by his violent disposition for which he is notorious, Mr. Mwaliteta goes on to make wild claims about my attempts to get attention and sympathy from President Lungu and getting none, my hope for a Cabinet position after Bill 10 but not getting one, my engaging in tribal hate speech and anger against Hakainde Hichilema and the Tonga people, my having been rejected by the Chief, blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum.

7. My support for Bill 10

As regards Bill 10 which I indeed fully supported and still do with no regret at all, I will not attempt to justify my position here as I can write an entire book on the subject elucidating the progressive provisions and benefits to Zambia in the content of the Bill. Needless to say, Mr. Mwaliteta could have obviously been a beneficiary if he had lobbied his Members of Parliament as regards the Grade 12 qualification for Parliament which was in the Bill.

8. Check your facts

If Mr. Mwaliteta had bothered to check his facts he would have at least found out;

i. How long I have known President Lungu and my relationship with him and that I could not have been a Member of Parliament on the PF ticket without his blessing;

ii. My position on tribalism and tribal hate speech which is on record at Parliament through my debates on the subject;

iii. How many Tonga people are part of my immediate family within my household;

iv. My relationship with the Chiefs in Chembe, etc, etc.

I have decided not to do a favour to Mr. Mwaliteta by giving him answers to these questions but to give him some homework so he can bring his essay with answers within 7 days for marking.

9. Conclusion

Lastly, here is my humble advice to all political actors in Zambia. This is our country; therefore, the development question faces us all in equal measure, opposition and ruling Party alike. I believe that political involvement is a noble calling, a vocation to work for our people so as to improve their welfare and living standards. This is the noble duty and responsibility of every citizen. Let us therefore, build a better Zambia together in unity, based on our cultural and moral values of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence. This is what has made us the envy, not only of Africa but the whole world. We cannot do that by insults and an insatiable appetite to get power at all costs to the detriment of our country.

We can not turn at each other as though we are enemies when in fact not, when we should be holding each other’s hands to address the challenges that face our country and our people. Let political leaders in our country desist the temptation to prey on the artificial differences amongst our people, such as tribe, to advance their narrow political agendas to get power for their self-aggrandizement to massage their overblown egos. Leaders must unequivocally condemn violence and cyber bulling which are showing their ugly faces in our politics.

The day the spirit of Ubuntu permeates our body politic and drive the manner in which we conduct our political engagement, will be the day when we shall see real development come to Zambia in a peaceful atmosphere where we are all equal stakeholders and participants in the noble duty of nation building and national development.

It will not do to cannibalize our country into little tribal enclaves; we are and must remain;

ONE ZAMBIA, ONE NATION. May the Almighty God bless our country and all the peoples that live in it.