Obrey Katungu Just seen a list of 50 richest people in African. And there is no Zambian. Others are celebrating that GBM and HH are not on the list while others are questioning why these two supposedly rich Zambians are not on the list. For starters, according to the information released by the President in 2012, HH was rumoured to be worth about K360 million (360 Billion old currency). This translates into a mere US$60 Million. The net value for GBM is not known. But according to a report in the Post somewhere around 2012, GMB sold off his fleet of buses which were valued at about K200 Million (200 Billion old). This income was advertently used to set up the haulage business that should have increased his net worth by about 10-20%. Combining all his other businesses, My assumption would be that he is worth slightly less or just slightly more than HH (Between K300 Million to K400 Million, i.e US$50 Million to US$67 Million). The combined wealth of GBM and HH CANNOT even get them to be in the top 100 richest people in Africa. The 50th Richest person is worth about US$400 Million while the combined worth of both HH and GBM is less than US$150 Million. This brings me to the following assumptions on why Zambians cannot amass as much wealth as other Africans: 1. As a country, we have very weak investing minds. Probably more focussed on consumption than looking at long term profitable investments. 2. We have weak policies that do not encourage local entrepreneurship. This is evident even in the number of capital projects (infrastructure and advisory services) given to Zambians. Most of these are gotten by non Zambians with the Chinese leading. 3. We fail to distinguish between politics and business. Firstly, there is the propensity by our wealthy Zambians to become politicians for whatever reasons. Then there is also the wrath of the government to finish off those who are perceived not to be on their side. GBM is a good example, it is rumoured that most of his government contracts have been terminated after his fallout with the PF. Even as the government is doing this, they seem oblivious to the fact that such an entrepreneur is not only a major employer but also contributes significantly towards the countrys GDP. Another example is Rajan Mahtani. This Zambian suffered business wise in the MMD regime because of being perceived to be aligned to the then opposition PF. 4. The Party and the economy. There seems to be an inadvertent assumption that the party in power must also control all sectors of the economy. This therefore means that the party in power must have the richest people, its members must be given priority in government contracts (However unable they are to deliver), and its members must be given first priority to benefit from economic empowerment ventures like CEEC or Youth/Women Empowerment Funds. The economic performance of a country is a reflection of the economic standing of its individual citizenry. We need to grow more rich Zambians who can contribute massively in country and also be able to compete and open up businesses in other countries. Most of our rich Zambians make most of their money in country and thus may not even be brining much forex. We also need to economically empower more Zambians and prioritise Zambian owned companies in service and product delivery. Until then, we will continue to have an economy determined by external forces. Merc
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 08:16:43 +0000
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