By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –
NEELKANTH Cable Zambia Limited, a new cable manufacturing company, will be commissioned in January 2016 at a cost of around US$17 million.
Neelkanth Group representative, Gopal Kedia said the firm had invested between $16 million and $17 million to establish a copper cable manufacturing company in the Copperbelt Province.
Mr Kedia said the company, once operational, would be able to compete with other local firms in producing copper electric cables using locally-mined minerals like copper.
“We have a new project we are going to start soon in the Copperbelt and we will commission it first week of January 2016.
“Our total investment will be about $16 million to $17 million,” he said in an interview in Lusaka.
Mr Kedia said the company was expected to create more than 300 job opportunities for the local people in the first phase.
The firm would engage mining companies with the view of sourcing minerals from them to manufacture copper electric cables.
“We are going to be buying copper from the mining companies to produce the copper electric cables. We have also been running a lime project in Ndola for the last three years,” he said.
Mr Kedia said the company was committed to supporting the growth of the manufacturing industry and called on Government to put in place measures to help stabilise the Kwacha.
“The Kwacha has to stabilise… if it is fluctuating by five per cent to 10 per cent in a day it is not good for the country; it is not good for the investor and not good for the industry,” Mr Kedia said.
He said it was important for the Government to develop rigid policies that would protect the local manufacturing sector in the face of economic challenges.
Mr Kedia is the general manager for MM Integrated Steel Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of galvanised iron roofing sheets, colour roofing sheets, tubes, open section, and Roto water tanks in Lusaka.