Africa-Press – Zambia. In order to explain the late President Banda’s economic performance, for which I remember him, I show below in Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 economic growths under Presidents Kaunda for a limited period of time, and Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, Sata and Lungu for all the years they presided over Zambia. I don’t have data for the whole period that President Kaunda ruled.
When President Chiluba took over the Presidency in 1991, Zambia’s economic growth was down to minus 2.0% which was inherited from President Kaunda’s economic downturn from 1980 shown in the Figure 1 below. Despite hitting unprecedented growth of 6.8% in 1993, growth under President Chiluba came to tumble to its lowest peak of minus 8.6% under his rule the following year. Perhaps a carryover from President Kaunda.
Notwithstanding this one year-drawback, and save, 1998 when growth again shrank, the remaining years of Chiluba’s Presidency show a magnificent trend of GDP growth, stretching from 1999-2002. Chiluba’s economic performance is little or not even talked about, yet statistical evidence clearly shows that the economy he presided over then was growing luxuriantly and moving towards improvement.
After all, the most powerful trade unionist Zambia ever had was not as bad as some of his enemies would like us to believe. He was also not an economist yet he did so well.
But the best performer of the Zambian economy, in terms of growth was the President who was equally not an economist but a lawyer. For that reason, I show in Figure 2 below only the period of Mwanawasa’s rule, 2002-2008 in order for the reader to see clearly what I’m talking about.
Using the period under review, GDP growth under President Mwanawasa reached a very high peak of almost 8.0%. Not only that. Consider annual average growths from 2002-2008. Between 2003 and 2008, growth had leapfrogged to an unprecedented annual average level of almost 7.0% shown in Figure 2 below.
We can make an assumption that if God had not taken our lawyer President away, and if the economic growth trajectory had continued as shown in the Figure below until he left office officially, perhaps the economy would have played a major role in improving lives of Zambians.
I know turn to President Banda’s time, 2008 to 2011 and wish to ask readers to refer to Figure 3 below, showing GDP growth under his rule. For the three-year period shown, it is clear that Mr. Banda’s Presidency demonstrated robust economic growth reaching the highest peak during the period under review.
In addition, it also shows that Mr. Banda’s growth performance of 10% in 2010 was as high as President Kaunda’s in 1972. We can applaud the Banda Presidency for exhibiting strong economic growth which may not have been exposed to public media.
At the same time, we are cognizant that a black cloud hangs over Mr. Banda’s Presidency. Between 2010 and 2011, his miraculous economic performance of 10.3% in 2010 went crushing down to 5.6% in 2011 when he left office. The fortunate thing is that this is not negative. Therefore, to me, if Mr. Banda’s Presidency had continued, perhaps growth would have continued handsomely and contributed to prosperity. I don’t know what educational background the late President had, but his performance was outstanding.
The period 2011-2020 was Patriotic Front’s (PF) rule and here is why it makes President Banda’s rule superior. As Figure 4 below shows, PF took over when economic growth was outstandingly 5.6%, and the following year 7.6%. After 2013 growth degenerated to 5.1%. Since then, we see that GDP growth slumped massively to reach almost minus 3.0% in 2020. In terms of economic growth, these numbers show that PF was no match for Mr. Banda even though they beat him in elections.
Oh my God, by the inconceivable power of your Mercy, let President Banda who died on Friday enter your kingdom even if he sinned like all of us. Friday is the memorial of your bitter agony on the Cross. Because your mercy is inconceivable, the angels will not be surprised at this.
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