By Esther Chisola
Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) says only 16.7 percent has been realised in investment pledges.
Speaking at the end of year media briefing in Lusaka, ZDA director general Albert Halwampa said the country recorded $9.83 billion in actualised investments out of $58.78 billion in committed investments.
He said the $9.83 billion has been actualised from 497 projects with a committed investment of $18.74 billion across different sectors.
“The mining, manufacturing, transport, service, and agriculture sectors accounted for $3.43 billion, $3.36 billion. $ 1.19 billion, $792.34 million and $487 million respectively. The rest of the sectors accounted for $561.1 million,” he said.
Halwampa further disclosed that 40,395 jobs were actualised against committed employment of 38,119 from the 47 projects.
“The mining sector with 11,639, the transport sector at 6,416 and the agriculture sector 3,471. The rest of the sectors accounted for 5390 jobs combined,” he added.
He said in 2024, the Agency continued to drive the trade investment and business development agenda by implementing several programmes that included targeted trade and investment missions as well as facilitating business development services aimed at enhancing the growth and competitiveness of businesses in key sectors of the economy.
Halwampa said $6.91 billion worth of committed investments were recorded in 2024 from 486 Investment projects noting that the energy sector recorded the highest investment worth $2.63 billion followed by manufacturing with $2.33 billion, transport with $558 96 million and mining with $481.56 million.
“In addition, 233,098 jobs were committed from the 486 investment projects recorded in 2024 compared to 160,280 jobs committed from the 379 investment projects recorded in 2023, representing a percentage increase of 45 percent,” Halwampa said.
He said the agency would leverage the Investment Trade and Business Development (Amendment) Act, 2024 to promote investment in expansion projects/brownfield investment projects as well as rural areas in a bid to create employment and accelerate development.
Halwampa further disclosed that the Agency expected to attract over $1 billion in committed investments from the Zambia International Conference (IZIC) which was scheduled to take place in the second quarter of 2025.
“The event will provide a platform for high-level B2B meetings, B2G, buyer-seller meetings, and networking. IZIC will be launched in January 2025,” said Halwampa.
