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Finance and National Planning Deputy Minister Keith Mukata this morning toured the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) plant in Kafue to familiarise himself with the operations of the company.
Mr. Mukata was in the company of Kafue Member of Parliament (MP) Obvious Mwaliteta, Ministry of Commerce Senior Economist Amos Mumba and other senior government officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce.
He commended NCZ for its efforts to improve production capacity saying this will ensure that government and the company reach their intended targets of providing cheap fertiliser to farmers in the country.
Mr. Mukata however urged the company to come up with a business model that will see it become self-sustainable in the long term.
“Be competitive, run this company as a business, produce quality fertiliser and reduce your cost of production by at least 20 per cent so that we may see you reducing the price of fertiliser for the benefit of Zambians,” he said.
He added that, “as government, we don’t want you to always depend on us. Instead, work towards a situation where you will sustain yourselves, it is critical that you have a turnaround formula”.
Mr. Mukata however raised concern on how the company would distribute fertiliser to farmers across the country.
The Deputy Minister advised the company to consider the least expensive but effective mode of transport, which is by rail, as it distributes the commodity to the districts.
“The railway line will be more sustainable. What you can do is use it to first distribute to the five provinces on the line of rail and thereafter perhaps you can use trucks to distribute to the other five provinces,” he suggested.
Mr. Mukata further commended NCZ for creating more than 500 jobs for Zambians stressing that the company, as a strategic institution, reinforced President Michael Sata’s declaration that the country can only be developed by Zambians.
“We thankful to a President who is bold enough to deal with real issues. The future of NCZ was bleak until the government decided to intervene,” he said.
And Mr. Mukata, who is also Chilanga Member of Parliament (MP), advised NCZ union workers not to frustrate government efforts of revamping the plant saying the workers should instead be patient because development cannot happen overnight.
Meanwhile, NCZ acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Zuze Banda said the company upgraded its equipment and capacity to modern levels adding that its ammonium plant will be operational by next week.
Mr. Zuze stated that the opening of the plant will further improve the capacity of the company which he said has doubled its annual production rate from 142, 000 tonnes to about 277,000 tonnes of fertiliser.
He has since assured that the company will soon begin to distribute fertiliser to the districts because it was currently producing 600 tonnes daily.
Previously, the company used to produce 200 tonnes a day before government recapitalized it.
He said the company had already engaged the Zambia Railways Limited which has since promised to provide its storage facilities to NCZ for free.
Mr. Zuze has since commended government for resuscitating the company for the benefit of Zambians especially that NCZ has not engaged any foreign nationals to conduct its operations.
Meanwhile, Kafue MP Obvious Mwaliteta urged the company to take advantage of the Patriotic Front government’s political will to revive it and create employment for local people in the area.
Mr. Mwaliteta said it was government’s desire to see NCZ become the best company in Africa.
And the NCZ workers union congratulated the PF government for revamping the company saying this showed commitment to improve people’s standards of living.
