John Paton Author

The Zambia International Investment Forum will take place on the 21st and 22nd April at Mulungushi International Conference Centre. The theme will be “Investment for Industrialisation, Wealth and Job Creation”.This event is organised by the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, the Zambia Development Agency and the UK investment platform Homestrings Ltd.

For more information please contact Mulemwa Moongwa, Homestrings Events Consultant: zambia@homestrings.com +260 955 867396 or visit the website at: www.homestrings-events.com/ZIIF2016.

The Rt. Hon The Lord Mayor of London, The Lord Mountevans, is making a visit to Angola, Zambia and Mauritius during his term of office. He will be visiting Zambia from 24 to 27 February, together with a delegation from the professional snd financial services sectors in the UK. While here he will be having meetings with President Lungu, a number of government ministers and others, visit the Lusaka Stock Exchange, meet leading members of the business community and representatives of professional and legal services companies in Zambia.

Members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Zambia will have a special opportunity to meet the Lord Mayor and his delegation at a breakfast meeting on 25 February, kindly sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. The British Chamber of Commerce will provide an objective network for the Lord Mayor and his delegation to tap into and gain private sector insights into Zambia’s business environment.

The event is open only to members of the BCC by invitation.

Some 45 members and guests attended this event at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel on 26 November 2015.

Growing a company or even sustaining one in the current economic climate is not easy and calls for a regular review of operational efficiency, careful control of cash-flows, constant monitoring of changes in the market, keeping customers satisfied and productivity.
At this event our speakers gave lively and informative presentations on the topic of Employee Engagement and Business Performance – for the two are closely linked. For businesses to grow and be profitable now and over the next decades they will need staff that are informed, have the right skills, are productive and innovative – at all levels.

We were fortunate to have with us two highly experienced discussants who used their experience and expertise to help chart the way forward.

Kelvin Sokuni, CEO of KSM Management Consultants, a highly respected HR practitioner and consultant with many years of senior management experience in major Zambian companies and Nankhonde Kasonde of Tuntulu, an Organisation and Relationship Systems Certified Coach and Chair of the Zambian Coaching Association.

Bites from their presentations included:

• Be smart – hire smart
• Don’t let your employees delegate to you
• Disengagement starts at the top
• The modern employee wants an environment where they can explore and innovate

Ms Kasonde presented some interesting and worrying statistics from the 2011/12 Gallup Global Survey, which revealed that:

• 10% of employees are actively committed
• 57% merely put in time
• 33% act on their discontent in counter-productive ways

Their presentations offered a number of strategies and ideas that led to an active discussion and, from reports, much follow-up activity with the presenters.

We have reviewed the membership category criteria and subscription rates for 2016. Taking into account practices adopted by other organisations as well as changes in the value of the Kwacha, we have increased the category bands for Small companies to revenues of less than K5m a year, for Medium companies to revenues from greater than K5m and less than K50m and for Large companies to revenues greater than K50m. Subscription rate increases have been kept to between 25% and 33%. in Kwacha terms but a reduction in USD terms.  The new criteria and rates are set out in the downloadable application form.

Subscriptions can be paid electronically or by leaving a cheque at the offices of Knight Frank next to the Ministry of Finance. Please ensure all payments show your company’s name

As a special offer we are offering a 10% discount on the new rates for new subscriptions and renewals paid before 31 December 2015. If you need an invoice please let us know and we will send you one.  Current members do not need to complete another application form but merely make payment identifying the company.

Visit the Membership Page to download the application form.

CAROLINE KALOMBE, Lusaka

EUROPEAN Union Head of Delegation Alessandro Mariani says his organisation has set aside 40 million euros to improve the regulatory framework as a way of supporting the private sector.

Mr Mariani said in Lusaka on Thursday the money is meant to boost private sector participation in the economy and foster its role in poverty reduction through job creation.

He was speaking during the British Chamber of Commerce meeting with co-operating partners in Lusaka.

Mr Mariani said the funding will also be used on pilot projects proposed by the private sector.

He said improving the policy framework will boost the role of the private sector in national development.

The sector, Mr Mariani said, needs proper regulation to operate favourably and ensure sustainable growth and generate jobs.

“The private sector is key to business and development. It provides affordable goods and services and an engine for innovation. By reducing risks of investment, the private sector provides additional resources in the economy where they invest,” he said.

Mr Mariani said the EU has shifted support to include focus on energy and agriculture sectors as the country moves to diversify its economy.

“There is need for diversification of energy sources. Hydro power has served the country well and will continue, but we know its limits such as climate change,” he said.

Mr Mariani said the energy sector has raised a lot of interest from European investors and that ensuring a regulatory framework that provides an enabling environment for such investment to flourish is important.

And Department for International Development (DfID) economist in Zambia Annalise Raue said the funding agency is supporting Zambia in reducing poverty through various private sector initiatives.

Ms Raue said DfID has provided US$16 million for private sector enterprises for six years, which will ensure US$30 million of investment and create 40,000 jobs.

She noted that Zambians need to participate adequately in the economy and that change can only come from them.

Credit: Zambia Daily Mail

At the October CEOs’ Lunch, attended by 40 members, guests and others who find our events a great networking and learning opportunity, Malvi Chavda from Pricewaterhouse Coopers gave a presentation on the results of their 2014 global survey on ‘Economic Crime: a threat to business processes’.

Over 5,000 senior officers from business, government and public sector organisations, of which 83 from Zambia. Key findings of this survey for Zambia and globally are that:

• Asset misappropriation is the leading form of economic crime: 81% in Zambia and 69% globally
• Bribery and corruption ranks second: 35% in Zambia and 27% globally
• Procurement fraud comes third: 30% in Zambia and 29% globally

The survey finds that the cost of economic crime in Zambia is relatively high compared to Africa and Global levels. The survey reveals that 46% of Zambian respondents reported that the cost of economic crime was between $100k and $1m, while in Africa as a whole, 29% of respondents reported that they suffered less than $50k from economic crime, less than the 32% global figure.

Economic loss is not the only concern that companies face when combating crime. Respondents pointed at damage to employee morale and business relations as some of the most severe non-financial impacts.

The survey shows that most fraud is committed by internal fraudsters, according to 65% of Zambian respondents compared to 63% in Africa and 56% globally. Of these, most in Zambia are junior staff members at 54% followed by middle management at 46%, while the wider African and global findings show that fraud is perpetrated first and foremost by middle management (a trend now evident in Zambia in the preliminary 2016 survey findings).

The report also covers many other aspects such as stopping and preventing fraud, cybercrime, perceptions of the related legal environment and a global perspective. To find out more and to download a copy of the survey, go to http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/advisory/consulting/forensics/economic-crime-survey.html.

If any members of the Chamber wish to attend the PwC launch event for the next report in February 2016 or in case there are any queries, please get in touch with Malvi at  malvi.chavda@zm.pwc.com or on 0967 862 743.

On 29 October the British Chamber of Commerce in Zambia held an event on ‘Engaging the Private Sector in Zambia’s Development’ at the Taj Pamodzi hotel. The event was moderated by Bob Liebenthal and presentations were made by:

• Annelies Raue, the economist from from DFID
• Alessandro Mariani, the Ambassador at the Delegation of the EU in Zambia
• Brian Mtonya, the private sector specialist from the World Bank
• Ayana Angulo the lead procurement officer from USAID
• Peter Rasmussen, the economist from the African Development Bank.

The five informative presentations covered the current country strategies and activities in Zambia of these four cooperating partners and the main African development finance institution, how Zambia’s private sector can benefit from doing business with them and the various facilities available to our private sector, in terms of grant support and investment and financing facilities. They pointed out that many of these facilities are available to Zambian companies wanting to do business and, or invest in other countries. An active discussion followed.

Below are documents from several of the speakers and more will be added as they become available. Alternatively visit the organisations relevant websites

• AfDB Zambia CSP 2011-2015
• DFID contact details
• Doing Business with the EC
• World Bank Corporate Procurement Policy Summary 2013
• World Bank Resource Guide – Business Opportunities Basics

 

For its main September event the British Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Airtel Network Zambia, organised a discussion on Social Media. Some 130 members, guests, media houses, bloggers, journalists and other attended the event. The discussion was led by a moderator, Ms Brenda Nglazi Zulu, founder of the Zambian Bloggers Network and the speakers comprised Mr. Peter Armstrong (Young and Rubicam), Mr. Nathan Sichilongo (Dot.Com Zambia), Ms. Carol White (Ideas Consultancy) and Ms. Janice Matwi (Brand and Communications Manager – Airtel Networks Zambia Plc).

The discussion covered a number of topics, including the forms of social media; their various applications for business, professional and social purposes; the importance of an effective marketing strategy and whether and how social media can be part of that, challenges facing the using it and the numerous analytical applications available to measure their effectiveness.

Many of those attending afterwards commented that the event was a good start to discussing the role of social media in Zambia, how to control some of the less pleasant features that can occur in some applications, and in making the right choice of applications to meet objectives.  Given that the event was unable to accommodate everyone that wanted to attend due to lack of space, it would seem an opportunity for another organisation to follow this up with another forum – perhaps drawing on the experiences learned from this one.

The Chamber wishes to extend its thanks and appreciation to Airtel Networks Zambia, to the moderator and speakers and to all those who attended. We also thank the Taj Pamodzi hotel for continuing to host the Chamber’s monthly network lunches and events.”

The British Chamber of Commerce has made a submission to the Ministry of Finance in regard to the 2016 Budget, per the downloadable file below. The Chamber gathered views from its members on such topics as Corporate Taxation, Property Transfer Tax, Withholding Tax, the application of various Excise Taxes and Duties, VAT rate on Exported Services and Reverse VAT on Online Purchases and made a coordinated submission. We anticipate that the Government will take due note of the detailed and justified submissions in its programme to improve the operating environment for business, especially in the current economic climate, when every effort needs to be made to improve Zambia’s competitiveness and stimulate business activity.

Download the BCC Submission of the 2016 Budget