Opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has emphasised the need for Government to act swiftly and put in measures prop up small businesses in the wake of interest rate rise and power outages.
Hichilema feels Government is not doing enough to support local SMEs as effects of the current economic challenges begin to take their toll.
The opposition leader wants Government to quickly make some regulatory changes and policy interventions aimed at relieving the bureaucratic burden and costs incurred by local companies at various points in their creation and operation.
“In reaction to the interest rate rise last week we called for more support of Zambian SMEs, including by cutting red tape and relieving some of the bureaucratic burden. This is a subject that deserves a lot more attention but is unfortunately often overlooked in favour of more populist policies,” Hichilema said in a media statement.
“Regulatory changes that streamline business processes can significantly reduce the time and therefore the costs incurred by companies at various points in their creation and operation. Improving their competitiveness will increase their appetite for growth and expansion within Zambia, as well as internationally, and help them to survive challenging periods, such as the current heavy load shedding and high interest rates.
Hichilema, an accomplished businessman himself, believes the country does not need to invent new solutions but can learn from countries that have better business environments, citing Rwanda as an example.
“There are some fundamental changes that can be made that are low cost interventions. We do not need to spend great time and energy inventing new solutions but we can learn from what countries have done elsewhere,” he stated
“For example, we can look at Rwanda, which is recognised as having one of the best business environments in Africa, and compare our performance to theirs in order to show the room for improvement. According to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index it takes 7.5 days to start a business in Zambia, but just 5.5 days in Rwanda. In Zambia border compliance procedures takes 136 hours, whereas in Rwanda it takes 97 hours. These are just two areas in which it is clear that we are not doing things efficiently as it stands with only ourselves to blame.
“If Government can commit to bringing these times down then more and more businesses will become viable, grow and create jobs. We can also target these interventions to stimulate activity in certain sectors, helping to diversify our economy, and grow our export industries, helping us to generate more foreign exchange reserves. It is clear to see that the impact of such interventions can go beyond job and income creation in the short term towards helping us create a bigger and stable economy that will be less vulnerable to external shocks.
“Unfortunately to date Government has missed much of the opportunity to create a better environment for our SMEs. They have opted for piling on more and more regulations over time, which only creates confusion, drives up costs and can lead to non-compliance for one reason or another. As Government addresses the electricity crisis and attempts to reign in inflation they would also do well to revisit these fundamentals in order to relieve some pressure and help set up our SMEs for success.”
“If it is not broke, don’t fix it”. HH is what the country needs. Who does Mr T have in mind to take over from HH?
#Lungu_Must_GO
May I remind Sampa that UPND is not a democracy; there are no conventions, they have a permanent president in the name of Hikainde Hichilema regardless of how many times he has lost the presidential elections and if your your last name doesn’t start with an “H”, you have to have GBM money to be in the inner circle!
You Tribalist. How many years did Sata remain as PF president and how many times did he lose but remained president. President has changed just because Sata Died. Zambians are no longer interested in people of your caliber. Instead Zambians want leaders who can provide solutions which clueless tribalist SATA left behind.
one thing I like about HH is that he gives advice to the pf despite them calling him bad names. This is a sign that he is more of concern to save people of Zambia from hardships. He uses professionalism rather than politicianism. Well spoken Mr. President.
HH, you are the best, you are humble, giving solutions to pf but pf do not want your advice. God, give us this humble man and intelligent man as our Zambian President soon before pf kill us all.
the only problem or good ness with hh is that he speaks profewsionally, he is not a politician at all, a kind that zambia needs today. the only problem in zambia today is that people are blind and want noise makers, polktical rhetorics, tribalists, people without understanding and vision. it is for this cause that we have remained so poor and we shall remain sufferers if we don’t change our attitudes and tribal politics
Your dead brain should shut up if you have nothing to say. There is no school that people go to, to become politicians. Politics is common sense which your dumb ass Lungu cannot use, reason why we are all now suffering. You have someone offering ideas, and all your foolish self can do is say crap about him. Tizadya anyoko?