EU commits €484m for Zambia

By MAILESI BANDA THE European Union (EU) has allocated over €484 million in projects to Zambia .

Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba said the EU under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) was committed to funding projects in agriculture, energy, governance and infrastructure development.

Mr. Yamba said the money had been disbursed towards energy, agriculture and governance sectors for the period 2014 to 2020.

Mr Yamba was speaking when he paid a courtesy call on Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa, Emmanuel Mwamba.

According to first Secretary at the Zambian embassy in South Africa, Naomi Nyawali,

Mr. Yamba said 64 million euros had been channeled towards the rehabilitation of Kariba dam while 65 million euros was for the rehabilitation of the Lusaka Transmission and Distribution line.

Mr. Yamba was speaking yesterday in Pretoria, when he together with a delegation of technocrats from the Ministry of Finance paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s High Commissioner, Emmanuel Mwamba.

The delegation is in South Africa ahead of a two-day EU regional summit involving countries in the Cotonou agreement also to be attended by Zambia’s Finance Minister Felix Mutati who joins the entourage today.

Mr Yamba also said 40 million euros would be channeled towards the promotion of renewable energy production in the energy category.

Mr Yamba further said in the governance sector, the EU would disburse 7 million euros towards legal empowerment and enhancement of Justice delivery programmes while 10 million euros would be channeled to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to strengthen democracy and promote greater participation of underrepresented section of society in the electoral process.

"About 108 million euros would be used to support sustainable commercialisation of Zambia’s smallholder farmers and 10 million euros for performance enhancement programmes for the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries," he said.

He explained that Zambia had performed well in utilisation and absorbtion of the grants among the recipient countries in the Cotonou Agreements, as such, was an envy and a case study country of efficient use of disbursed grants.

Mr. Yamba expressed gratitude to the EU for being one of Zambia’s biggest donor partners.