Workers of Mount Meru Millers Limited putting Soya beans on a conveyor belt during the processing of cooking oil in Katuba.

Mt Meru invest US$30 million  in the Zambian economy


By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA 

MOUNT Meru Millers (Z) Limited (MMML) has invested about US$30 million to establish an edible oil manufacturing in Katuba, one of the largest factories of its kind in the region.

And the company will procure grains worth US$35 million from the farmers from April to September this year.

MMML managing director Himanshu Shah said  the company  pumped in  about US$4 million to setup a high protein cotton seed processing plant for cooking oil, the first-ever to be constructed in Zambia and the second in the region.

Mr Shah said the company was expanding its refinery at the cost of about US$ 2.5 million which would enable it to do the fractionation of crude palm oils.

In an interview in Katuba, Mr Shah said once the fractionation plant was completed, the company would be able to process the crude palm oil in Zambia.

Mr Shah said currently, no manufacturing company was able to process crude palm oil apart from Gourock industries saying once completed it would be another one of its kind in the country.

“We are expanding our refinery and currently our refinery can do soya, cotton and sunflower seed oils and now we are expanding it to do the fractionation of crude palm oil.

Right now we can’t do crude palm oil, it is only Gourock industries which is a global industry and crude palm oil which is 50 per cent of the oil consumption of Zambia,” he said.

Mr Shah said MMML was repositioning itself to tap into the palm oil industry by putting in place a fractionation plant in Zambia.

He said its flagship plant in Katuba was a practical example of   value-addition through agro- processing.

Mr Shah said from May, 2014 to April 2015 the firm would crush around 60,000 tonnes of soya beans seeds of which 95 per cent had already been procured.

“We have plans to crush 15,000 tonnes of cotton seeds and 5,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds and this is our plan for this year,” he said.

Mr Shah said this year the company had projected to crush a total of 80, 000 tonnes of the edible oils.

He said plans are underway to construct 36,000 tonnes storage silos which would be completed in the next 10 months.

“We will be putting up three silos that will carry up to 36,000 tonnes of soya beans and the foundation process has started which is expected to be completed in the next 10 months and this will be the biggest silos in Zambia,” he said.

Mr Shah said it was important to point out that the company was buying 100 per cent of the cotton and sunflower from the smallholder farmers and 95 per cent of the soya beans from the commercial farmers.

“We are currently doing trials in sunflower and our aim is to promote the production of sunflower in Zambia. We have factories in Uganda and Tanzania and the plants are running at 100 per cent on sunflower,” Mr Shah said.

To date, the company has created over 400 jobs for the local people in Katuba area.

The Media celebrates 50 years of change in reporting & broadcasting -Zambia

It makes an interesting observation to note how the media has evolved from the colonial times to-date. As we celebrate Zambia's 50th years of it independence, it is important to look at how the media has facilitated the exchange of ideas and opinions in our society.

And moreover the power of  social media.

Maimbolwa Kabaso Mulikelela   

Mathews Mutale, Author of 'An Eye Opener for SME'

SMEs: An Eye Opener for SME: A must-read

BY MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA  -

ALTHOUGH Governments grab headlines with huge investments in infrastructure, behind the scenes, are the many small and medium sized enterprises (SME) which are forming the backbone of economic development and whose efforts are now being increasingly recognised.

In Zambia, for example, SMEs are seen as pivotal to the country’s growth story and as an integral part of its future economic development.

As well, the Zambian Government is keen to re-examine the country’s strategy for helping the Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSMEs) and is considering how best to do this.

While the Government is considering alternative approaches, a Zambian entrepreneur and founder of Diamondale Foundation based in the United States of America (US) Mathew Mutale has written a book entitled An Eye Opener for Small Medium Enterprise (SME)

The book describes the different approaches the SMEs could use to develop their organisation through better marketing strategies and business project management thereby, raising their productivity, enabling them to invest in human capital and escape from intergenerational poverty traps.

From the point of view of the author, the book can be an effective way to target particularly not only how management process work, but more importantly, on why it works and also the transitional to support the growth of the SMEs.
Mr Mutale believes the sector constitutes a very important segment of the Zambian economy and other developing countries in the world bearing in mind that while, many Western economies are measuring growth in static or even minus figures, the world’s newest economies continue to power ahead.

It is important to note that SMEs typically, have flat management structures and unlike large organisations, do not have hierarchical chains of command.

The book highlights the key strategic areas on how to start a business and implement the project management in an SME
organisation.

The book An Eye Opener for SME is very useful in the sense that an SME in any part of the world could use the information to start a business and improve on the structural management which has been a major hindrance to the development of this important sector.........

Times of Zambia 

Strengthen Public Health Laboratories ECSA countries urged

By Maimbolwa Mulikelela

EAST, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA_HC) countries have been urged to invest in public health Laboratories to strengthen diagnostic services utilisation in the region.

ECSA has observed that access to reliable laboratories testing remains limited in the region saying that more investments must be channelled towards improving public health laboratories.

Public health laboratories are critical component of global communicable disease detection, prevention and control.

It was pointed out that weak laboratories have contributed to late detecting of communicable diseases  such as Ebola  and other haemorrhagic fevers thereby causing devastating  effects on the communities.(....)  

CEE Act review underway

By MAMBOLWA MULIKELELA  – THE Government has embarked on the review of the Citizens Economic Empowerment (CEE) mechanism in the country and has engaged a consultant to appraise the current CEE Act. And the Auditor General’s Office has concluded the forensic audit on the operations of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and is expected [...] TIMES OF ZAMBIA