WE hail the two governments – Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – for signing an agreement on terms in which the latter could legally import maize from Zambian private entities.
It is heartening to note that finally the contentious issue of smuggling maize and mealie-meal from Zambia which started in the UNIP government has been formalised.
The agreement, will also serve both political and social purposes of cementing relationship between the two countries that have a lot in common.
The positive response from Zambia after a request was made by a Congolese deputation to reach an agreement on how best Zambia could supply that country with maize and mealie-meal, is thus hugely welcome.
While it is a fact that many Congolese depend on Zambia for their supply of the commodity, smuggling it into DRC deprived Zambia of the much-needed foreign exchange not to talk about creating an artificial shortage of the staple food.
We just hope and pray that the agreement which has seen some private sector players being issued with export permits to trade in maize will run smoothly.
This agreement is coming against the background of another recent presidential directive to Zesco and the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) to work with the Zambia National Service (ZNS) to expedite the installation of Solar milling plants in order to supply the entire country with cheap mealie meal.
Locally, so far the Government has spent a whooping US$100 million on the installation of Solar milling plants project countrywide.
With 2,000 solar-powered hammer mills in operation and the sealing of all loopholes in the sale of maize, we feel the price of mealie meal would certainly come down.
It is also good to note that since the UNIP days, it is only the PF Government that has priotised the work of the cooperatives as a vehicle of development.
This will certainly have a huge positive impact on the economy by offering cheaper and affordable mealie-meal to Zambians.
The milling plant project and the Zambia/DRC agreement are clear indicators that the PF Government is making frantic efforts to provide affordable mealie-meal in the country.
Credit should go to President Edgar Lungu who has been relentless in finding a lasting solution to the maize saga since some unscrupulous business executives are always inventing ways of smuggling the commodity out of the country creating an artificial shortage locally.
President Lungu has fulfilled his promise which he made last week when he directed that there was need to make the trade of maize between the DRC and Zambia official, in order to reduce  smuggling and maximise benefits for the two governments.
As things stand, we should never hear the news that has dominated headlines for the past months of some deceitful business executives smuggling maize and mealie meal to neighbouring countries.
We say this after noting that even when Government restricted the movement of maize in order to avoid further artificial shortages that was being created by some people, there were still reports of serious maize scandals.
We now hope the latest agreement will end it all.