Samfya residents bask in REA power

 September 6, 2016

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

THE growing of one’s business is the dream of any entrepreneur, but usually, the limiting factor for many is capital.

For 33-year-old James Mukupo, a businessman of Mpanta village in Samfya district in Luapula Province, the opposite is reality.

Mr Mukupo always had the dream of expanding his business with enough savings, he was all set to grow his business but he was limited because the village did not have electricity.

With an already existing market to buy his goods, not having electricity restricted him with a variety of merchandise he could sell.

Luckily, the government through the Rural Electrification Authority (REA), in 2013 built the first mini-solar plant in Mpanta village.

REA is a government institution established by an Act of Parliament No. 20 of 2003.
Its primary aim is to provide electricity infrastructure to the whole nation targeting rural communities as mandated by Government.

And Mr Mukupo did not have to change his location of his business for it to grow because electricity was taken to Mpanta village by REA.

The US$1.3 million 60kW mini-solar plant is providing electricity to 480 households, a school, market, rural health centre, churches and the harbour.

The primary use of the electricity generated at the mini-solar plant is for household and commercial lighting, refrigeration, cell phone charging and entertainment through radio and television.

Since the installation of the solar power plant in Mpanta, Mr Mukupo has been able to expand his business.

“My business has greatly expanded because of solar power. I am able to sell electronic gadgets such as DVD players and radios, I am also able to sell perishables which need refrigeration,” Mr Mukupa says.
Mr Mukupo is also able to fulfil the main purpose of establishing his business, which is to support his family since his profit has increased.

According to him, the installation of solar power in Mpata has improved his life. Through his business, he is able to support his family and pay school fees for his children.

With a business like his, earning a K15, 000 in a good month as profit is something that brings a smile on his face and this keeps him eager to develop even more.

Mr Mukupo is not the only entrepreneur in Mpanta village whose business is slowly expanding as a result of the provision of electricity by REA.

Demero Chola, 32, is another businessman. He is a father of five.

“We used to knock off as early as 17:00 hours for security reasons but not anymore. After the installation of solar power, we now knock off as late as 23:00 hours, making our businesses more profitable,” Mr Chola says.

The installation of the mini-solar plant to supply power to Mpanta village has not only cheered traders with large amounts of capital, even the smallest of entrepreneurs like Magarate Kalaba who sells tomatoes.

“In the past when business was difficult, I would only sell my tomatoes before sunset, but now with the provision of solar power, I am able to conduct my business for longer hours,” Ms Kalaba says.
These are some of the success stories from Mpanta village whose businesses are flourishing following the electrification of the area.

REA is committed to ensuring that communities in rural areas have access to electricity, a tool that helps improve productivity and people’s quality of life.

As evidenced from entrepreneurs of Mpanta village, REA envisages that through the provision of electricity, rural communities will be able to enhance their productivity and effectively contribute to national development.

REA corporate affairs officer Choolwe Kosamu says Mpanta is the first mini- grip project targeting solar.

Since REA started the implementation of rural electrification projects in 2006, it has done 928 solar projects countrywide.

Mr Kosamu says using the Rural Electrification Master plan (REMP) developed in conjunction with Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA), the authority has been able to implement at least one project in each province per year using different technologies.

The project beneficiaries have been public institutions such as schools, rural health centres, local courts and other government institutions. Chiefs’ palaces, business centres, farm blocks and private households are other beneficiaries.

Renewable energy sources such as solar are comparatively cost effective, efficient and environmentally friendly.

In many rural areas, the provision of these energy sources has contributed to reducing the pressure on natural forests on which rural populations heavily rely for their energy requirements.

The Mpanta solar mini grid, which was financed with the support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), was commissioned in September 2015.

“The business model of managing the plant is a community-based model. A local co-operative called Kafita Multi-purpose Co-operative Society Limited has been engaged through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be responsible for the management of the mini- solar power grid,” Mr Kosamu says.

The main focus of the electrification programme is to target public facilities, commercial undertakings and their surrounding areas.

The electrification programme will go on until all rural areas in Zambia have been electrified by either the extension of the national grid or other forms of energy like solar between now and 2030.

Wilson Kalumba’s fresh ideas to improve Zambia’s capital city

September 3rd 2016

VIOLET MENGO

LUSAKA 

Wilson Kalumba- Lusaka City Mayor

 AS LUSAKA residents went to vote for their executive mayor in last month’s elections, of all the major contenders, you can safely say Wilson Kalumba was the least known to the average person.

This was so despite the fact that he was the ruling Patriotic Front’s (PF’s) mayoral candidate in the election.

But those who knew him, or had looked at his credentials, said he was just the type of person that the city of Lusaka needed as executive mayor.

Of course, the problems of Lusaka are well-documented, they have to do with housing, water and sanitation, management of vendors, markets and bus stations and public transport, among others.

Mr Kalumba put his name across as a candidate, promising to clean up the image of Lusaka.

He came up against the likes of former Lusaka mayor Fisho Mwale, former First Lady Maureen Mwanawasa and Elias Mpondela, whose two decade tenure at the helm of the Zambia Amateur Athletics Association is almost legendary.

But if Mr Kalumba lacked anything in name recognition, he certainly had plenty in work and professional experience.

You may want to start with the Bank of Zambia (BoZ), where he worked for 18 years. Mr Kalumba was the deputy director in the Central Bank’s supervision department, responsible for assessing the financial performance and conditions of commercial banks and the banking industry.

In doing so, he was contributing to safeguarding of depositors’ money in the banks by ensuring that banks remained financially sound and safe.

“I have deep insights for high financial performance benchmarks, with a flair for problem solving covering complex issues,” Mr Kalumba says about his experience in the financial sector.

“These include assessing proposed financial products with the overall aim of ensuring customer protection.”

While at BoZ, he represented the Central Bank on outside bodies such as appointment by Cabinet Office to chair the Contingency Planning Committee charged with the responsibility of designing the country’s financial sector contingency plan as well as member of the Licensing Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as chairman of Small Medium Enterprises (SME) Committee at Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA).

Mr Kalumba is a chartered accountant qualified under the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) from Emile Wolf College in London and a fellow member of ZICA. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Edinburgh Business School at Heriot –Watt University in Scotland, and is also a certified forensic accountant, a specialised designation awarded by the American College of Forensic Examiners in the United States of America (USA).
There is more; he holds a Leadership Development Programme in Strategic Financial Analysis for Business Evaluation from Harvard Business School at Harvard University.

Other certifications include being an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration Zambia branch, as well as a certified credit rating analyst by Moody’s.

Mr Kalumba is the founder and chief executive officer of Credit Rating Agency Limited (CRA), Zambia’s first ever credit rating company, that rates the credit worthiness of banks, non-corporates, insurance companies, small medium enterprises and governments.

As founder and chief executive officer of the firm, his responsibilities include providing overall leadership and direction to this relatively young company, where he is also responsible for business development and customer acquisition, developing and implementing the company’s strategic plan.
His professional and work experience does not end there though. For seven years, between 2001 and 2009, he was based at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, USA, serving appointments by the UN Secretary Generals Kofi Anan and Ban Ki-moon, a Financial and Economic Sanctions Expert area where he was responsible for monitoring the implementation of sanctions against identified targets.

“This appointment took me around the world to engage with national authorities in order to assess the effectiveness of national measures and in the process, I developed diplomatic skills to handle sensitive matters with national governments,” he says.

“During my tenure at the UN, I developed a strong international network of heads of government departments and institutions in several countries, and locally, the network extends to CEOs and senior management of banks, private companies and government departments.

“I started my career with Pricewaterhouse, an auditing firm in 1990, but after one year, I moved to another auditing firm, Coopers & Lybrand, which I later left to join the Bank of Zambia in 1992.”
It is that work and professional taking to the capital city’s civic centre as executive mayor.

His over-arching objective is to transform Lusaka City Council into a “council that is responsive to the needs, interests and aspirations of individuals and stakeholders within communities, and seek to ensure that the council’s resources are used prudently and distributed equitably.”

On his way to the civic centre, he promised a number of initiatives that he intended to implement for the betterment of Lusaka.

Just call them fresh ideas for council business.

These include an efficient and clean public transport system; making the council construct affordable housing units; issuing municipal bonds to raise long-term finance for capital projects; construct new markets and sporting facilities in the communities; and in the short term designate market streets for vendors to operate from.

Mr Kalumba says the housing crisis is the single biggest barrier to prosperity, growth and fairness facing the people of Lusaka today. He says the city’s shortage of decent and affordable homes is causing real misery to thousands of residents, and damaging Lusaka’s competitiveness.

“In order to improve housing, the council will focus on developing high-rise apartments to cater for young families and working class. As I realise that land for such use maybe in short supply, the council may have to re-designate some of the land it already owns and bring down any structures on such land to pave way for the construction of modern high-rise apartments,” he says.

Mr Kalumba is also concerned at the fact that more than 80 percent of Lusaka residents do not have access to clean running water, and to that effect, he will attract public private partnerships (PPPs) to invest in taking piped water to areas with no running water.

“Lusaka is one of the most polluted cities. Too many of our families and friends are suffering from Lusaka’s filthy solid waste, and we need to act now. I will introduce mandatory trash bins separating biodegradable waste from non-biodegradable, ban rubbish pits in residential areas,” he says.

“I will also introduce a special tax on glass and plastic bottles to specifically raise funds required to deal with the collection and disposal of plastic and glass bottles. Working with relevant stakeholders such as businesses and consumer associations and regulators, the council will also promote PPP to set up plastic and glass recycling plants.

“I will improve drainage systems in communities by upgrading them to concrete; make sure that all the rubbish and soil removed from drainages are properly disposed of rather than being piled by the road side. There shall be all-year round cleaning of the drainage.”
Lusaka certainly needs some cleaning, if not, fresh ideas.