BY JOWIT SALUSEKI –
A ZAMBIAN entrepreneur who attended United States President Barack Obama’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya has urged the Government to lower the cost of doing business if the sector is to flourish.
Monica Musonda, chief executive officer of Java Foods, says the only way the Zambian economy can grow is if it the State has to adjust the cost of doing business, which she says is too high.
Ms Musonda said she interacted with various entrepreneurs at the Summit, who were doing well in their various businesses and learnt that her peers were successful because of the incentives given to them by their governments.
She was speaking in Lusaka on Tuesday when US Ambassador to Zambia Eric Schulz hosted nine entrepreneurs from Zambia who were selected to attend US President Obama’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which was held in Kenya from 25-26 July.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Schulz said that Zambia had a great economic potential and one of the most important factors creating that potential is the country’s dynamic young entrepreneurs.
He said the entrepreneurs will enable the country  wean itself from reliance on aid to prosperity through business and trade adding that
entrepreneurship will also help spark future inn ovations and solutions, creating jobs and building businesses.
Ambassador Schulz said the US embassy in Zambia has been continually impressed and energised by the young entrepreneurs who hold the key to a brighter future for all citizens.
“My Embassy chose Zambia’s participants with care as 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’’ said Ambassador Schulz.
He noted that the United States was also proud to support the WE
CREATE Zambia Centre which opened in June 2015 in Lusaka’s Kuku Township.
The centre has already helped hundreds of Zambian women work through business models and gain access to entrepreneurship mentors. Ambassador Schulz disclosed that the American government was looking to invest in about 30,000 megawatts in  African governments especially
in  Zambia where there were co-leading the initiative with the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other financial institutions in order to increase power generation on the continent.
Zambia and Malian entrepreneurs together with host nation Kenya were some of the nations which were chosen to attend the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.