Cement factory lacks expertise
By Business Reporter
ZAMBEZI Portland Cement director and shareholder, Manuela Ventriglia has said operations of the newly-established cement manufacturing plants are being affected by lack of people with the necessary expertise.
She said in Ndola yesterday the biggest problem her company faced in its early stages was lack of skilled labour which she said was a challenge up to now.
To address the problems caused by the shortage of skilled personnel, her company had embarked on an initiative aimed at training youths in various skills that would culminate into sustainable human resource bank.
Speaking during a closed-door meeting with Ministry of Labour and Social Security officials led by Deputy Minister, Simon Kachimba at the company’s plant in Ndola yesterday, Ms Ventriglia said the special programmes that would see school leavers trained in various skills over the years was part of various initiatives aimed at modernising the management and operations of the cement company.
“The surplus of those who will be trained over the years who will not be engaged by our company will be hired to various other firms also experiencing the problems we experienced in the early stages of establishing this company,” Ms Vantriglia said.
Mr Kachimba urged Zambezi Portland Cement and the El Sewedy Electric Company’s management not to only embark on the expansion of their companies but to come up with initiatives that would ensure that there was a sustainable skills development programme for their employees.
He said the training of youths in various skills would be the best way to plough back some of its profit to society.
Mr Kachimba advised investors to work with the experts from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training and various trades’ schools to ensure that their personnel were being trained by the right people.
Speaking later when he toured the El Sewedy Electric transformer manufacturing plant, Mr Kachimba urged management to ensure the rights of workers were upheld.
“For employees to be dedicated, there is need for management to ensure that there is job security and this will lead to a situation where malpractices by employees are reduced,” he said.
El Sewedy Electric financial director, Samuel Mulenga said his firm’s expansion initiative aimed at developing business ventures with various countries in the Southern African Development Community region was progressing well.
And Gourock Industries chief executive officer, Srinivasa Rao said his company that had directly engaged over 150 employees apart from indirectly providing jobs to 2,000 others was determined to see to it that there was gender balance among its personnel.
Mr Kachimba, who toured the cooking oil, soap and edible oils manufacturing plant housed in the former Lever Brothers premises, said the Government was struggling to balance the male and female factory employee ratio, which is 70 per cent male and 30 per cent female, and was impressed with the efforts being made by the Gourock management.
He called on management to ensure that employees were allowed to join a union of their choice.
Mr Kachimba said apart from offering training in various areas, it was important for the companies to develop their employees’ skills by exposing them locally and abroad to ensure they maximised their productivity.
