INVESTING IN ZAMBIA

I do not know much about investment and what investors look for in a country when they are considering investing in it. But this much I know; you have to look at the political, economical and social scenarios in that particular country before considering to invest in it. For example, my ex-business partner and I, once missed it when we went to invest in the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe, a few years ago. At a time, Malawi still had Mbingu Wamutarika (MHSRIP) as president. Off-course, the environment was very conducive for what we wanted to do, lots of potential to make some money and I think we were enticed by the figures that we roughly had and missed the most important things as long the way as we did our research. We were both not very experienced and it was our first time to try and invest in a foreign country. What we missed was that, Malawi was struggling politically and the economy was really bad! imagine a place without fuel for a week or two weeks sometimes, people would actually travel to Mchinji (Malawi-Zambia Boarder) to buy some fuel, it was a time when supermarket like shoprite had empty shelves sometimes. That was really bad and we had to back out before we could lose more money than we already did.

My point is that, you will have to dig deep in search of information and facts before you could invest in a country. I am going to give you just a few basic information about Zambia that will probably help you consider to invest in it. Otherwise, do a real and very detailed research.

POLITICAL SCENE

Zambia has generally been peaceful ever since she gained her independence on the 24th of October 1964. We were liberated from the British Colonial Rule. And I am also happy to mention that, this year 2015, Zambia was voted the number one peaceful country on the African continent by the Global Peace Index (GPI). And this was stated on the UKZambians website in March this year. Zambia's political conflicts are normally verbal..,politicians attaching each other with words and i am sure this goes on in all the countries around the world...,i guess that is way politics are normally referred to as "DIRTY". And we see a few trouble makers during election time and mostly from co-boys who mostly don't even vote! That's about it, once the elections are over and the winner has been announced. We all go home celebrate, hug and kiss or go home and have a drink pissed! That's the beauty of democracy and having multiple political parties. The next elections for Zambia is next year, 2016. We vote every five years.

SOCIAL SCENE 

Have you ever travelled to a country where everybody seem genuinely happy at a first glance? While, if not then welcome to Zambia, a country with happy people. Zambia is a country of 73 languages or tribes and in the past twenty years, we have seen lots of inter-marriages among the tribes hence making it a "One Zambia One Nation" indeed, with this reason, there are no conflicts among the people that might result in a genocide.., like the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The Zambian people are warm hearted people with a natural will to help. Even if we have so many ethnic groups or tribes, it not difficult to talk to people for the official language is English. English is in the school curriculum and each person who has passed through school even at primary level knows how to speak English to a level that you can understand. Otherwise, generally people speak English and they can communicate. This is another PLUS, to consider investing in Zambia.

ECONOMICAL SCENE

Zambia's economy remains strong and stable for the past two years despite the decline in the GDP growth from 6.7% in 2013 to 5.7%. Zambia rely mainly on copper export which contributes about 85% to its revenue. And now the government has the ambition of the 2030 vision to diversify the economy into tourism, agriculture and manufacturing.

"Zambia has had a long period of political stability. With strong growth in the last decade the country has reached lower middle income income status. Investor confidence has been high as evidenced in the success of two Euro Bonds". The World Bank

You can download the latest and more detailed PDF report of the Zambia's Economy review on HERE

SECTORS IN ZAMBIA YOU WANT TO INVEST IN

There are mainly four sectors that you may want to invest in. We have Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing and Tourism. These are the sectors that government has put favourable incentives for both foreign and local investors.

I am more interested in Zambia's Tourism Sector. When we talk of tourism in Zambia, or tourist attractions, what comes to people's minds mostly is the mighty Victoria Falls and when it comes to investment, people concentrate much on Livingstone town (speaking from experience). We have many tourist attraction sites as a country and there is more room for investment. I had posted some pictures of the beach on the Lake Tanganyika and Nsumbu National Park on our facebook fan page and the response was overwhelming! Many people didn't know that places like that existing in Zambia. And these are the places you wanna put your money in.

Lets look at the Northern Tourism Circuit (Muchinga, Luapula and Northern Provinces). The Northern Circuit is a potential money making area. First of all, everything is almost new which means, lots of opportunities and if you want to buy land, it is still very affordable. Northern Zambia is the home of Chishimba Falls, Namukolo Church, Shiwa N'gangu House and many more great sites and more than ten waterfalls. Try to explore Northern Zambia and see were you can invest in. With a new province, Muchinga Province which is now the tenth province of Zambia, you are sure to find some areas in which you can put your money in. The North lacks international standard hotels/ lodges, infrastructures, accommodation in terms of rental houses/apartments etc.

Anyway, I am not much of an economist neither do I have much information on investment in Zambia but I sure do hope you can put some consideration in investing in Zambia. And do more research in the sector you would want to put your money in.

HAPPY INVESTING...! ZAMBIA WELCOMES YOU & YOUR MONEY!