By MUNTANGA MALINDI and KENNEDY MUPESENI –
THE first batch of the 400 solar-powered hammermills, which will be placed in four provinces in the country by 2016, have arrived in the country from China.
This is part of the US$200 million project which would see the creation of more than 3,000 jobs when 2,000 hammermills are installed in all the 10 provinces by June next year.
Shandong Dejian Group Company general manager Huang Meng, whose firm is handling the procurement and installation, said the company would engage many Zambians at the installation stage.
“We will employ about 3,000 locals during the installation phase, our idea is to engage a lot of Zambians at every stage so that when we hand over the plants to the Government through the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF), locals have the gist on the equipment to run it efficiently,” Mr Huang said.
He was speaking when ZCF management led by director general James Chirwa toured the warehouse in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area yesterday.
By October this year, 200 of them which have been loaded in China for onward shipping would be in Zambia.
The project emerged from the presidential milling initiative in which a contract was signed with China for the purchase of the hammermills aimed at addressing the price of mealie-meal in the country.
The hammermills, which came into the country on August 27, are expected to be transported and begin operating in Lusaka, Northern and North-Western provinces, while the next consignment would be installed in Southern Province.
Mr Chirwa said the bringing in of the solar-powered hammermills would ignite development within rural areas around the country.
The ZCF expected to see other industries emerging around the mill area to provide various services towards the maintenance of the equipment.
“We would like to see services such as provision of spare parts to allow for the smooth running of the hammer mill,” he said.