43
Innovators
What about y
our business turnov
er?
Safricas Zambia has grown very fast. Currently
we have a turnover somewhere in the region of
about USD18 million per year. We will probably
finish this year with a turnover of under USD25
million.
This is very rapid growth, but the biggest danger
being that we are only doing government works at
the moment. We need to diversify and target the
private sector
Coul
d y
ou tel
l
us more about some y
our cu-
rrent proj
ects?
We are constructing a bypass between the North
and East of Lusaka. The road starts seven kilo-
meters from Chongwe East of Lusaka and pro-
ceeds through Kazizi which is North of the Ken-
neth Kaunda International Airport, in Lusaka. The
road ends at Great North Road at Kobagwe. With
the inclusion of two other feeder roads, the total
distance to be upgrade to bituminous standard is
81 kilometers.
We are also working on Zambezi road and the
Caltex road. All these three roads are being done
to go and feed into the same circular road around
Lusaka.
We have done a good job because initially when
the project was awarded, here was no design
done. However, after the design had been done,
the need for bridges and culverts was realized
and this meant quite a lot of work to be done on
the same project.
There are a number of construction com-
panies,
some of them v
ery
big
names.
What
mak
es y
ou different from the rest of the sec-
tor?
In the first place, the company is led by Zambian
indigenous engineers, Zambian professionals,
because we understand that being Zambian, they
know the market place really well. This aspect is
a difference from the others in the sector. We also
spend significant amounts of money to try to put
Zambians to work in the construction sector.
Does this expl
ain the v
ariance in the qual
ity
of
the roads around the country
?
Yes. A lot of people have successfully undertaken
smaller projects and they really believe them can
take on such huge projects. Unfortunately for
them, in most cases, they find that they have un-
derestimated the costs of the project, and they are
not able to do a good job. We have a huge number
of construction companies. The real question is
how many of them will survive.
It is particularly brutal in our sector because we
have competition from foreign companies such
as the Chinese who are also cheaper. They are
cheaper because they have cheaper sources of
funding. They get money from the Bank of China,
which is cheaper than the money we get from our
local commercial banks.
However, I welcome the competition because I
believe that fair competition can only make the
Zambian firms better. Government needs to have
policies that still make it possible for the Zambian
companies to survive. They could introduce some
incentives for Zambian firms and they should be
implemented, in order to allow the Zambians to
survive in this competitive sector.
What is y
our big
g
est accompl
ishment as ma-
nag
ing
director of Safricas Zambia?
What I’m most proud of has got to be our Zambian
growth rate. We started as a very small company
in Zambia and then within a matter of months we
grew, and it has been internal growth. So, we
have worked hard and we have grown our com-
pany in Zambia through our own hard work and I
think this has been the biggest satisfaction.
The downside though, is that in Zambia, we need
to engender more of Zambian companies suppor-
ting each other, more than what it is at the mo-
ment. If we did that there would be more compa-
nies like Safricas. For instance, if you go to the
banks, it is very difficult for them to give support
to a new construction company, one without a
track record of business. So, if all of these sort
of people worked together, they would be more
companies like Safricas.
