100 Reasons why zambia is poor By Niza Phiri, Munali MP aspirant.

100 Reasons why zambia is poor
By Niza Phiri, Munali MP aspirant.

#100 Zambian Government Ministries.

How can a small country with a population of only 13.5 million have 21 ministries? When russia with over 10 times zambias population and over 22 times the land size, have a smaller government with 19 ministries? And much less people under the ministry? Why are we spending so much on government ministries that do not bring in any money into our economy? Take the Ministry of chiefs, Ministry of Gender, Ministry of lands and water. Do we really need a whole ministry for this? Aren’t these just supposed to be departments under other ministries? Gender can be under Education, we just need to sensitize the population. Ministry of lands should be a department under the ministry of local government. And so on . We need to also Establish a Ministry of Employment Creation, in place of one of the redundant ministries. Further, The bureaucratic tendencies we have adopted in these ministries has made it seem as if we need so many employees like two deputy ministers in each ministry. In short . We need to replace redundant ministries, close the ones we do not need and make them departments. Simplify processes, and cut down the size of ministries.

#99 Donor Aid–

this aid we receive creates a dependency, in my research I have seen that Aid from the developed nations does more harm than good. Its like the saying goes, give a man a fish? He will come back tomorrow, teach him how to fish? He will make a lively hood. Aid should go to projects that will self finance after a while. We need to have a policy that makes sure aid , once received should be used in money generating ventures

#98 Lack of Autonomy of the Councils:

it is very surprising that councillors can be allowed to contest on party tickets. This has made it very difficult for them to provide guidance , checks and balances to the government because most likely the party in power will have the most number of councillors and these councillors, who are at the grass roots can not question or bite the hand that feeds them. Hence government does not implement people oriented projects as proposed by councils.

#97 Poor Education system

The education system in zambia is not tailored to suit the zambian way of life. The core of the education system designed for us by the british has basically stayed the same. For example a high school student will do 9 different subjects that are of a very varied nature from grade 8 to 12, Most countries are now starting to specialize at 8th or 9th grade this will make the student take 3 or 4 subjects and therefore can learn more of their chosen field. A student who prefers to take business studies should take English, commerce, accounts and mathematics in high school. He does not have to suffer with physics , biology, technical drawing, woodwork and so on. Further we need to tailor the syllabus to the local market. Eg entrepreneurship.

#96 Nepotism

Simple as it may be, and as much as we do not like to admit it. The productive industrial Zambia of the 60’s and 70’s met its downfall because people where employed based on relationship with government officials and so on. This continues to kill this country because the best people to run the government owned companies are cast aside in preference to people who are known to “important people”. Eg Zesco, Napsa, ERB,RDA etc CEO’s and Board members are appointed based on allegiance as opposed to merit. Eg what qualification does willie Nsanda posses to be where he is. This has run this country into the ground.

Continued in next issue

Niza Phiri, Munali 2016


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