News

THE Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has approved 47 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) projects for the month of February worth K3.1 billion.And the agency has approved investment licence applications worth US$536 million for the month of February.According to the latest issue of ZDA Spotlight made available to the Times in Ndola, the approved SMEs projects will create 401 job opportunities.Lusaka and Northern provinces had the highest number of SMEs representing 14 each. Southern and the North-Western provinces recorded the lowest figure of the projects.

The approved SMEs represent an increase of more than K1.2 billion in investments compared to January’s K1.9 billion from the sector.ZDA said the investment licences approval represents a 17 per cent decline compared to the investment inflows for the month of January in which $638 million was approved.The applications were from about 18 projects that would in turn create a total of 2,292 jobs once implemented.ZDA said the approvals were from sectors such as manufacturing,health, education, energy, tourism and agriculture.Other applications were from mining, real estate and construction.Meanwhile, the ZDA announced that copper output in Zambia rose by 14 per cent to 697.860 tonnes in 2009 from 611,940 tonnes in 2008.Copper exports also increased to 675,384 tonnes from 587,125 tonnes in 2008 while, cobalt production shot up to 5,879 tonnes compared to 4,617 tonnes during the same period in 2008.