A KENYAN entrepreneur has urged Zambians to cut off the secrecy and high cost that surround their natural resources if other countries were to buy materials from Zambia.
Stella Peterson, the proprietor of Slapat Jewellers and Art Gallery in Kenya said in an interview from the ZITF where she is exhibiting that she has never used Zambian local materials for her products because there was a lot of secrecy concerning where to find the local resources.
Ms Peterson said Zambians were also expensive when selling the natural local resources.
Ms Peterson makes jewelries using seeds and minerals.
She said of the many years she has exhibited at the ZITF, she has not used any Zambian local materials.
“For example, I know Zambia has a lot of malachite but I haven’t been told the source and the people that are willing to sell it to me are expensive,” Ms Peterson said.
She said she could not afford to buy the local materials at a high cost because that would push up the cost of her products and consequently, she would lose out on most customers.
Ms Peterson said Zambians should do away with the secrecy surrounding their local materials if they wanted to penetrate the foreign market.
If the local materials were readily available, she said, her company could use those materials and market Zambia.
