Women demand more opportunities in construction
ONLY 2 percent out of the 20 percent local sub-contracting policy has been given to women contractors, Zambia Association of Women in Construction (ZAWIC) president Dorothy Mulwila has revealed.
Ms Mulwila stressed that women in construction had been sidelined and were not benefiting from the 20 percent sub-contracting policy.
She said it was sad that the construction industry had been made a preserve of males.
It is Government’s policy that a minimum of 20 percent of all Government-funded contracts be executed by Zambian-citizen owned companies in line with the shareholding structure specified in the Citizen Economic Empowerment Act No. 9 of 2006. The overall goal of the legal provision is to ensure that invest- ments in public works contribute to sustainable socio-economic development, by building capacity in Zambian owned companies. However, Ms Mulwila feels that the women were been left out on the sub-constructing police. “The construction industry should it be a preserve of males? The answer is no! It is supposed to be for both the women and the men. Due to gender imbalances caused by social culture and political religious, women have been left behind in social and economic development including in construction.
“In 2016, there were 4,100, registered constructors in Zambia, over 3000 of those were Zambian-owned companies with 583 companies belonging to women, and only 217 were foreign owned. It’s sad that only 2percent of women out of the 20 percent sub-contracting policy have been given to women,” Ms Mulwila said.