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Minister of Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Elias Mubanga says the government is establishing the Industrial Yards with the purpose to accelerate the development and growth of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Zambia. He further said that the government is implementing the Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Project Supporting Women and the Youth (SDEP-SWY) in the country.
Speaking at the event where the minister officially commissioned the Chipata Industrial Yard in Eastern Province, he said the development of industrial yards was part of the government’s programme and strategy to provide support to MSMEs by facilitating the development of suitable infrastructure to enable MSMEs to conduct their businesses in a conducive environment. The main responsibility of the ministry is to foster the development and growth of MSMEs and cooperatives, which ensures economic growth and job creation.
Mubanga said his Ministry was working progressively to actualise the objectives of the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) which was intended to unlock the country’s potential in all sectors of the economy for sustainable and all-inclusive national development by utilising and adding value to the local resources that Eastern Province was endowed with. He acknowledged the role of the African Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank Group as major development partners in the construction of the industrial yards.
Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) board chairperson, Jason Kazilimani said, through the industrial yards, the Commission aspired to turn rural Zambian areas from districts of economic misery to zones of economic prosperity. This requires a total transformation of the provincial natural resources sector. At the core of this, there must be rapid rural industrialisation. We must not just focus on primary production but on the development of district value chains. That way, Zambia, and Africa will turn from being at the bottom to the top of global value chains.
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Kazilimani said the CEEC had taken the step forward to use industrial yards as best practice centres for provincial SME development with export quality as the mantra taking into account, SME technical skills and management training, industrialisation, and value addition.
