By KENNEDY MUPESENI –

THE imminent pullout of the United Kingdom (UK) from European Union (EU) membership will affect developing countries like Zambia, Copperbelt University (CBU) School of business dean, Biemba Maliti has observed.
UK citizens on June 23, 2016 voted to leave the EU in a referendum.
Professor Maliti said Zambia, like other developing countries which depend on budgetary support from the EU, would be affected by the development.
“Aid is going to be reduced because of the pullout; we still depend on donors in the execution of our budget, so with this development, we are likely to see aid shrinking and we have to be ready to face the future by tilting  towards the home-grown economy,” he said.
Prof Maliti said this in an interview in Kitwe yesterday.
He called for fiscal discipline in budget execution to offset the impact that might be created by the changes in the EU.
“We need to put stringent measures to implement fiscal discipline especially in terms of Government expenditure while trying to come up with lasting solutions,” Prof Maliti said.
He said the development in the EU was a wake-up call for countries like Zambia to start weaning themselves from over-dependence on foreign aid.
“Other countries have done it, we can also do it provided we are resolved to work hard. We have a lot of resources which have remained untapped for a long time,” Prof Maliti said.
He called for serious political will for the country to shift from depending on aid, and feared that UK’s departure may just signal the exodus from the EU of such other countries like Germany or France.