Basic HTML Version
181
www.ebizguides.com
Commerce, Trade and Industry
MANUFACTURINGPERFORMANCE
New Soweto market, Lusaka
A worker at Novatek animal feed factory
training of over a thousand small and medium busi-
ness entrepreneurs in various business skills.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Act of
2010 established an autonomous corporate body
under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Indus-
try called the Zambia Competition and Consumer
Protection Commission (CCPC). The act was devel-
oped in order to encourage competition within the
economy, protect consumer welfare, strengthen the
efficiency of production and distribution of goods and
services, secure the best possible conditions for the
freedom of trade and expand the base of entrepre-
neurship. The CCPC has a wide range of powers of
enforcement and investigation under the act, and the
commission has achieved success in dealing with a
variety of market distortions, protecting the compe-
tition process and thereby rendering the Zambian
market more attractive to investors.
Continuing the work of the Small Enterprise Devel-
opment Board (SEDB), following the amalgamation
of the Zambia Development Agency, the Small and
Medium Enterprises (SME) Division is charged with
analyzing the needs of businesses and developing
products and services, particularly for small and
medium sized enterprises to be delivered nationally
and at regional level. It also monitors the overall ef-
fectiveness of local business programmes and man-
ages programmes such as the Trade and Industrial
Development Fund. It maintains close ties are with
relevant partners, including small business associa-
tions and NGOs involved in the SME sector.
The importance of the SME sector to job creation
and wealth distribution cannot be overemphasized.
The government acknowledges this and has con-
tinued to work diligently with institutions supporting
business management and entrepreneurship skills
in order to ensure that Zambians are sufficiently
qualified to undertake business ventures at small
and large scales.
Economic empowerment
The Citizens’ Economic Empowerment Act of 2006
established the Citizens’ Economic Empowerment
Commission (CEEC) and the Citizens’ Economic
Empowerment Fund with the intention of promot-
ing the economic empowerment of citizens. Of par-
ticular focus of this group are those who have been
marginalized, disadvantaged, and whose access to
economic resources and development capacity has
been limited due to factors such as race, sex, educa-
tional background or disabilities.
The National Savings and Credit Bank (NatSave)
has adopted a group lending micro financing
scheme as a pilot project in Luanshya and Petauke.
The programme is meant to promote accessibility to
financing to SMEs, which usually face challenges
in raising collateral and encounter difficulties in the
preparation of financial statements.
A K 349 million loan portfolio has been created, with
no delinquencies recorded. Customers undergo an
eight-week training programme on business funda-
mentals in management prior to becoming eligible to
be granted a loan. The programme has now been
launched at 27 other Natsave branches across the
country.
Despite the many challenges created by market
liberalization, such as stiff competition from foreign
imports in the domestic market, the manufacturing
sector has performed relatively well over the past
decade and has become an important catalyst of
private sector development in Zambia. However, the
events of the global economic crisis in the latter part
of 2008 resulted in a decrease in manufacturing ac-
tivities, which grew by just 1.8 percent in 2008 and
2.5 percent in 2009. This was largely due to factors