By CHUSA SICHONE –

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has directed the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) to ensure that all Government infrastructure projects in the country are constructed using locally-produced products.
President Lungu said the directive was aimed at promoting the use of locally-manufactured products instead of relying on imported materials.
The President said he expected people charged with the responsibility to adhere to such policy directions and warned that those who would ignore his directives risked being summoned to State House to exculpate themselves.
“In the spirit of producing Zambian, buy and trade Zambian and use Zambian, am directing the director-general of the Zambia Public Procurement Authority to ensure that all infrastructural projects including airport building in Lusaka, the expansion we are doing and the electricity power station projects, which are currently ongoing, are supplied by locally-produced products.
President Lungu challenged his Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda and Special Assistant for Political Affairs Kaizer Zulu, among others, to bring to his attention those that underrated his authority on policy direction.
Mr Lungu reiterated those who were undermining his powers because they thought that he would not bounce back as Head of State after the August 11, 2016 general elections would be in for a rude shock as he was emerging victorious again.
President Lungu further directed the Treasury and Bank of Zambia to stop quoting locally-produced commodities in Dollar as this was contributing to the devaluation of the Kwacha against other currencies.
The Head of State said this when he officially launched the Universal Mining and Chemical (UMCIL) Industries Limited US$ 250 million worth Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) Plant in Kafue yesterday shortly after a tour.
President Lungu directed the Energy Minister Dora Siliya and Zesco Limited managing director Victor Mundende to supply UMCIL a secured, reliable, stable and concessioned power supply commensurate to its status as a mining entity.
He further instructed Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma and the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings to allocate UMCIL a sizeable coal reserve to enable the upgrading of iron and steel products.
President Lungu said he had already directed the Road Development Agency to construct a by-pass road from Magoye to Landless Corner and in the process upgrade the remaining spurs from Sanje Hill to the new road as well as upgrade the road network to Kafue Steel.
He also disclosed that Government would facilitate the construction of railway line from Mumbwa to Kafue as that would help UMCIL to easily transport high grade iron ore resource located at Nambala-Sonkwe in Mumbwa to Kafue Steel Plant.
President Lungu observed that UMCIL had given Kafue a new lease of life after privatisation in 1991 through an integrated iron and steel plant, which he said was a practical example of industrialisation and pledged to make Kafue an industrial town by supporting such initiatives.
President Lungu was hopeful that once the aforementioned challenges UMCIL was facing were addressed and the company was fully operational, the envisaged 3,000 jobs would result in another 24,000 jobs and that the firm’s production would exceed the expected 240,000 metric tonnes per annum.
Earlier, Trade Kings Group of Companies operations director Bright Chunga cited, among several other challenges, load shedding as having reduced the operation hours to eight instead of 24 hours, resulting in production dropping from 12,000 metric tonnes to 3,000 metric tonnes per month.