The other day, former Mufumbwe Member of Parliament Steven Masumba made an impassioned plea to the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) to stop toying around with people’s emotions and avail money to them, pronto!
In a video that elicited several negative sentiments against CEEC on social media, Masumba laments, “CEEC how come you’re failing to implement the vision of the president? Money is there……how come you are not disbursing it? You keep on advising people to apply for funding but when they do, you don’t give feedback and yet keep on introducing more packages. The most honourable thing for you to do if you’ve failed to do your work is resign, bwana!
Masumba has a point……When several changes were made at CEEC just after the elections; many of us thought the new management would do things differently. Alas, the situation seems to remain as worse as before! Clearly, this institution has lamentably failed to foster broad-based economic empowerment of our citizens in accordance with the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission Act No. 9 of 2006 under which it was established. I will give a personal example. My prayer is that this information gets to the Small Scale & Medium Enterprises Minister, and hopefully the president himself as many folks may have suffered a similar fate.
In response to the call for proposals for Aquaculture business proposals in 2018, we tendered in our application accordingly. We pitched our proposal on intergrating fish farming with piggery/poultry and gardening to be based in rural Zambezi. Of course, our proposal was selected and funding amounting to K120, 000 was approved. Then the long awaiting for the coming of our Saviour commenced, as usual…..
As the rain season was fast setting in, we tapped into our own savings and went ahead and extracted 4 fish ponds and further procured water pumps, drip irrigation equipment and a wire fence as we waited for funding. Everyone in the surrounding villages were of course happy. They looked forward to the ‘fruition’ of this project as it obviously presented a golden opportunity for job creation, particularly amongst our vulnerable youth and helpless women.
Alas, our project is still yearning to be funded although we later learnt that some cadres belonging to the former ruling party were funded even if they absolutely had no clue about farming. However, when the new Director General was appointed, our hopes were rekindled. We wrote to his office bringing this predicament to his attention. We never got any response….not even a regret!
Imagine the resources we invested in the project which is now on a trajectory to be consigned as a White Elephant Project. CEEC, why can’t you for a change infuse professionalism in the manner you conduct your business. Shouldn’t tax payer’s money be invested in worthy projects aimed at improving the welfare of our people as opposed to ‘surrendering’ it to musicians and celebrities who will probably never bother to pay it back
Source: Lusakatimes
In other news – President Hichilema takes COMESA Chairmanship
Zambia has assumed the position of Chairperson of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern (COMESA) authority of the Heads of State and Government.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is also the Chairperson of the new bureau of the regional economic bloc which will be deputised by Burundi. Learn more
