By FLAVIOR CHISHALA –
THE American government has implored Zambia to nurture entrepreneurship as a means to reduce reliance on aid and boost prosperity through business and trade.

. Schultz

United States (US) ambassador to Zambia Eric Schultz said entrepreneurship will spark future innovations and solutions, create jobs, and build businesses.
Mr Schultz was referring to the young Zambian entrepreneurs that participated at the just-ended Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi hosted by President Obama recently.
He praised the nine entrepreneurs for emerging creative and successful at the summit and that Zambia was a country of great economic potential and that those entrepreneurs’ prosperous future held the key to a brighter future for all Zambians.
“My embassy chose Zambia’s participants with care.  We didn’t want to send just anyone to the Summit but rather current and future business leaders whom I hoped would impress everyone in Nairobi as much as they have me and who would make the most of the Summit’s “networking opportunities”, he said.
He said it was important for Zambians and indeed all Africans, to harness the energy and enthusiasm of the Summit to create faster and more sustainable economic growth stating that the loan interest rates were too high and Zambia’s ease of doing business was rated poorly on an international scale despite the country’s great potential, international and domestic investors alike were wary.
Mr Schultz said that in order for Zambia to attract capital, Government should free the private sector and unleash the creativity of its entrepreneurs and that less intervention, less regulation, would lead to greater investment and faster growth.
Mr Schultz said that Zambia, the US and other stakeholders could have a role to play in connecting Zambian entrepreneurs with resources but that if they were going to move Zambia from aid to trade, they needed to rely on the ingenuity and drive of the entrepreneurs themselves.
He said the women’s entrepreneurial centre called WECREATE Zambia Centre opened in June, this year in Kuku Township in Lusaka, had already helped hundreds of Zambian women work through business models and gain access to entrepreneurship mentors.
“Research shows that when women entrepreneurs succeed, they drive economic growth and invest more back into their families and communities, we are proud to provide a Centre to give Zambian women access to entrepreneurship resources.
“I look forward to engaging further with the Zambian Government and the Zambian people to help drive the country’s economic development.  Most of all, I look forward to more stories of Zambian entrepreneurs building successful businesses.
“As President Obama said, entrepreneurship means ownership and self-determination, as opposed to simply being dependent on somebody else for your livelihood and future,” He  said.