Africa-Press – Zambia. In the last 10 years, Zambians have witnessed the biggest infrastructure investment drive in the recent history. It is actually said that such levels of infrastructure spend was last witnessed in the 1970’s during the Kaunda era. The face of the whole country in terms of physical infrastructure has been transformed to unprecedent levels never seen before. In its 2008 Infrastructure growth and investment in Zambia report, the World bank reported that despite the GDP growth averaging 5.5% in the years prior to 2011, the investment in infrastructure had been reducing. To put it into context, in the period between 2004 and 2006, the government spend on infrastructure development according to budgetary allocations decreased from 3.7% to 1.8% of GDP. According to the World Bank, this was worrisome as it is a known fact that in order to achieve meaningful economic growth, infrastructure development is a precursor to that growth.
It is as if the World Bank and the new Patriotic Front Government that took over the reigns of power in 2011 were reading from the same book. The new government hit the ground running and embarked on an ambitious infrastructure spend (not necessarily infrastructure development) that focused on almost all sectors – from transportation to telecommunication, from agriculture to education and indeed from administrative infrastructure to health. In actual fact, housing infrastructure was equally given attention – (though dismally through the men in uniform housing units).
Some of the notable pieces of infrastructure that was undertaken by the Patriotic Front government include the following;
i) Mansa – Luwingu Road
ii) Mbala – Nakonde Road
iii) Mongu- Kalabo Road
iv) Kafue road – turnpike rehabilitation.
v) Kabwe – Kapiri road (along T2) rehabilitation.
vi) Luangwa Bridge – Mwami boarder (along T4) rehabilitation
vii) Ndola – Kitwe Dual carriageway rehabilitation
viii) Kitwe – Chingola Dual carriageway (upgrading)
ix) Chingola – Solwezi road (rehabilitation)
x) Sabina – Mufurila road (rehabilitation)
xi) CB400 township roads (rehabilitation)
xii) L400 township roads (rehabilitation and upgrading)
xiii) Leopards Hill road
xiv) Kazungula Bridge and OSB
xv) Chikankata – Mazabuka road (rehabilitation)
xvi) Feira Bridge
xvii) Tokyo way road (Inner-ring road)
xviii) Luangwa-Feira Road (rehabilitation)
xix) Great East Road rehabilitation (within Lusaka to airport round about)
xx) Lusaka Decongestion project (roads rehabilitation and upgrading)
xxi) Nakonde OSB
xxii) Mwami OSB
xxiii) Gravel roads rehabilitation (WB funding)
xxiv) Various Gravel roads around the country (NRFA funding)
xxv) Kalindawalo General Hospital
xxvi) Bangweulu General Hospital
xxvii) Chinsali General Hospital
xxviii) Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital (an upgrade from the existing facility)
xxix) Various Level one hospitals, mini hospitals and health posts around the country
xxx) New infrastructure at all the universities around the country
xxxi) Livingstone intercity bus terminus and market
xxxii) Choma intercity bus terminus
xxxiii) Mwomboshi Dam
xxxiv) Millennium challenge water and sanitation improvement project for Lusaka
xxxv) Various water and sanitation projects in all the water utility companies across the country.
xxxvi) Kafulafuta Dam
xxxvii) Kafue gorge lower
xxxviii) Itezhi Tezhi Dam upgrade
xxxix) Kariba North bank Upgrade
xl) Kariba Dam rehabilitation project
xli) Various transmission rehabilitation, expansion and reinforcement projects under ZESCO
xlii) Communication Towers under Zamtel
xliii) Kenneth Kaunda International Airport
xliv) Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe international airport
xlv) Harry Mwanga Nkumbula International airport
xlvi) Various township roads across the country – luwingu,Chama, Petauke, kalulushi, chongwe, kabwe, kapiri, Serenje, Mkushi, Mansa, Monze, Choma, Kasama, Chinsali, Samfya, Mpika, Isoka, Kawambwa, Mongu, etc. (basically everywhere)
Despite the above list not being exhaustive, the point is that so much infrastructure projects have been undertaken in the last 10yrs. The motive for such massive investment has been to spur economic growth through job creation, rural investment, connectivity, skills and technology transfer, capacity building, etc, which will, in turn, lead to poverty reduction.
In order to achieve the above infrastructure development, the country has had to spend quite a huge sum of resources (financial), of which the consolidated amount is not known to this author, but suffice to mention here that the World Bank (2008) recommended an annual bill of USD 1,000, 000,000.00 (1 billion US dollars) or 10% of GDP over the medium term in order to spur economic growth rates that would lift the masses out of poverty.
I would do justice to mention here that the private sector followed suit with various investments in infrastructure ranging from world class shopping malls (East Park Shopping Mall) to industrial yards (MFEZ), housing units (Roma Park) and indeed hotels (Sarovar Premiere) and Lodges. In all fairness, during this period, Zambia saw the greatest appetite for infrastructure spend ever witnessed in recent history, both from the public and private sectors. All of a sudden, professions related to infrastructure development were popular among the young folks. This is evidenced by the high enrolment numbers related to infrastructure development at various institutions of learning such as Civil, Electrical & Environmental Engineering, Architecture, Quantity Surveying, etc.
The World Bank (2008) stated that upgrading of Infrastructure can help maintain, and to an extent accelerate Zambia’s growth rates. It further stated that improving the provision of infrastructure services (electricity, telecoms, internet access, connectivity, agriculture production), could significantly increase Zambia’s economic growth prospects. It was actually propounded that the country’s GDP growth could have been 3.6 percentage points higher per annum if Zambia had a developed Infrastructure setup as that of Mauritius. This author further explained in the publication on this website that a developed, well managed infrastructure setup increases the country’s robustness in the face of natural disasters and climate change events such as floods, droughts, excessive famine and indeed disease outbreaks such as Cholera and the novel Covid 19.
Management of our Nation’s Public Infrastructure Assets – A call for Action
Alas, what has been witnessed is rather different from the narrative expounded above. Despite such as spending, economic growth has been dismal. In fact, the African Development Bank in its 2021 economic outlook on Zambia explained that Zambia’s GDP growth has over the last 3 years been on the decline. In 2018 it grew by 4.9%, slowing down to 1.9% in 2019 and finally went into the recession of -4.9% in 2020.
https://www.afdb.org/en/countries-southern-africa-zambia/zambia-economic-outlook .
The effect of these dismal growth rates has resulted in having very few jobs being created in the country and indeed low production rates in the manufacturing sectors. The 2020 4.9% GDP recession resulted in job losses and the manufacturing sector shrinking (well apart from hand sanitizer production). As if that’s not enough, we saw currency depreciation levels never seen before (The Kwacha was declared the world’s worst performing currency in the world). This led to skyrocketing cost of living and the Zambian citizens were thrown into utter destitution.
On the infrastructure side of things, only projects funded by the multilateral institutions and bilateral cooperating partners remain active as the rest were either suspended, rescoped downwards or indeed abandoned due to non-payment of moneys owed to the contractors. In mind I have the pedicle road, bottom road, Chama Matumbo road, Lundazi – Chama- Isoka road, Mbesuma Bridge, Kazungula to Sesheke road, Kalabo Sikongo road, Chinsali Safwa road to Mulilansolo, Solwezi Jimbe, Solwezi, Kasempa, Kabompo and Mufumbwe township roads, Muchinga province administration buildings -etc.
Economic commentators have attributed this to the overborrowing that the country undertook in order to finance the infrastructure development. On the other hand, political commentators have mentioned that this is due to the overpricing of contracts, giving contracts to cadres with no expertise – for lack of a better term, blatant corruption in the way this infrastructure development program has been managed. (This Author does not subscribe to the political commentators as no tangible evidence has been adduced thus far). To make matters worse, the large private infrastructure developers have sort of taken leave and are watching from the terraces (Queen Victoria hotel project by Sunshare has been put on hold). Individual developers (bama plot developers), have equally struggled due to the high cost of material inputs. Simply put, the once vibrant infrastructure development sector is in utter disarray and for lack of a better term, it is in shambles. And if its to go by the various narratives that put infrastructure growth as a precursor to economic growth, we might as well say economic growth prospects for Zambia have been put “ku wire”. As such, poverty reduction interventions are all in futility for as long as the infrastructure sector is not sorted out and put back on track.
According to the World Bank bulleting on Infrastructure growth (2008), increase to accessing quality infrastructure services such as the internet, water supply and improved connectivity between areas of production and the markets could actually increase the prospects of economic growth in Zambia. The ZDA in its 2013 infrastructure sector bulleting underscored this point by stating that the availability of reliable and affordable public infrastructure services is cardinal for sustained economic development. In fact, in the 5th National Development Plan, Zambia set out to improve its infrastructure outlook in all areas – thus providing quality and affordable infrastructure services for purposes of upscaling the country’s production capacity.
Notwithstanding the above, real challenges do exist as the economy is currently on “life support”. This is echoed by the African Development Bank in its 2021 Zambia economic outlook bulletin, stating that poverty is expected to increase in the medium term due to significant job losses in the service sector of about 30%, manufacturing by 39% and much more in tourism, personal services and construction sub-sectors. Further, the country is grappling with unsustainable debt of 104% of GDP as of 30th September 2020 (AfDB 2021).
This therefore calls for new funding techniques if at all the investment in infrastructure must continue and economic growth realised. Owing to the prevailing goodwill and renewed optimism following the election of business magnate H.E Hakainde Hichilema, it is time the government took advantage of the situation and indeed begin to look at other ways of funding infrastructure. The fifth national development plan in one of its objectives stated the need to develop and implement an appropriate policy to facilitate effective private sector participation in the construction of public infrastructure. As well, the ZDA (2013) mentioned the need to mobilise private sector financing to support public infrastructure development through PPPs as an alternative for infrastructure development.
The need to attract private sector financing therefore remains as one of the most viable ways to continue the infrastructure investment drive. This is underscored by the World Bank (2008). The African Development Bank (2021) actually goes further to suggest other ways of financing infrastructure such as increasing domestic revenue mobilisation, curb runaway public spending (accruing interests on unpaid IPC’s need to be stemmed) and finally creation of stronger institutional public financial management. The author would like to add, the need to improve capacity within the implementing agencies of infrastructure projects, an overhaul of the institutional and legal framework of the PPP unit to make it more responsive to the current infrastructure challenges. An investment into research and development with the sole purpose of developing cost-effective construction materials and methods (I believe molasses can be considered for feeder roads construction) as well as the decentralisation of the various infrastructure implementation units to provincial levels.
Indeed, over a round table, more solutions and interventions could be proposed in order for the country to continue its infrastructure investment drive despite the many challenges.
The point is, if we need to improve the agriculture value chain, we would need to invest in among other things dams, irrigation infrastructure, agri-processing plants. Equally, if we need to improve the manufacturing capacity, electricity infrastructure, internet accessibility and indeed transportation services and dry ports are a pre-requisite. Further, if we need to reduce rural poverty, massive agri-infrastructure investment is a must – such as storage facilities, canals, weirs, feeder roads and bridges.
As such, we must therefore put our minds together on ways in which we can continue investment in public infrastructure for us to talk about economic growth and ultimately reduction in the poverty levels. If economic growth must be achieved there is need for a sustained and deliberate drive to invest in quality and necessary physical infrastructure.
I submit therefore that prior investment in Infrastructure is a pre-requisite to economic growth.
The author is a Chevening Scholar-UK, Civil/Structural Engineer and Infrastructure Planning Expert.
