DURING the campaigns for the January 20, 2015 presidential election, then Patriotic Front (PF) candidate, Edgar Lungu, promised to set up milling plants closer to where maize and other crops are produced.
President Lungu said once elected he would set up these facilities throughout the country.
This was aimed at cutting the cost of transporting the grains from the areas of cultivation to areas of processing them into finished products.
It was further aimed at creating job opportunities, especially for the rural people.
Seven months after Mr Lungu was ushered in as the sixth Republican President, that dream has almost fully materialised, as all the 10 provinces are about to have milling plants.
Soon, the initial 2,000 solar-powered mini-milling units will start rolling into the country from China in batches of 200 per month.
This is after the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF), representing the Zambian Government, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Shandong Dejian Group Company Limited, representing the Chinese government.
Apart from being a brainchild of President Lungu, this well-thought-out project has been made possible through Mr Lungu’s trip to China early this year and it is, therefore, one of the fruits of the President’s international engagements.
President Lungu’s view, which we also share, is that the setting-up of the small milling plants around the country will no doubt assist in reducing mealie meal prices and ensure constant supply of the staple
food throughout Zambia.
Zambia produces a lot of maize and there is no way the prices of mealie meal should remain high.
Definitely, the setting-up of the new milling plants, for maize and other crops, will support food security in Zambia.
These easily accessible milling units will provide the rural and urban farmers with a reliable and consistent market for their maize, as well as produce competitively-priced mealie meal for consumers.
They will offer an advantage in the maize meal market, especially in the rural areas where the people are sometimes forced to “import back” mealie meal to the countryside from towns.
The milling plants will utilise local maize and produce mealie meal right in their areas of location, leading to a drastic reduction in the cost of transport and other logistics.
This will also enhance efficiency in the processing of the crops and supply of the resultant products.
It is hoped that the consequential benefits will be passed on to the final consumers via highly competitive prices of the products.
It is strongly believed that the high mealie meal prices are usually due to transportation costs, so the setting-up of the milling plants in parts of Zambia where maize is produced should be able to resolve
that.
Further, the milling plants will provide the local communities with opportunities for employment while some of them will have access to skills training.
Apart from benefiting the people through reliable supply and competitive prices of the staple food, the project will also promote economic activities in these rural areas.
Generally, therefore, the project is expected to alleviate the sufferings of both urban and rural dwellers.
This is because one milling plant will need at least 12 people to put up the structure and to run it at that level.
This will result in not less than 30,000 jobs being created, thereby significantly pushing down the unemployment levels in the rural areas.
There will be reduction of people among the households involved.
No doubt, the project is a step in the right direction which will provide an opportunity for the demonstration of the much-talked-about Public Private Partnership (PPP) concept.
For President Lungu and the PF, this is a campaign promise effectively fulfilled! It is a word well-kept!