Although Zambia is facing headwinds through ongoing challenges with power supply and volatility in the copper price, “at another level there is still is a lot going on around places like Lusaka.”
Africa House director Duncan Bonnett told FTW that the government of President Edgar Lungu had made significant progress with the diversification of its economy around sectors such as IT, retail and tourism.
Another area where Zambia is excelling is attracting foreign direct investment into its property market. According to Bonnett satellite towns like Roma Park are shooting up around the periphery of the country’s capital with services industry businesses eager to benefit from Lusaka pivoting itself as a sub-regional hub.
The developmental approach of developing estates of 5000 and more stands with basic services has proved a godsend to Lusaka at a time when the country is reeling from price pressures bearing down on the mining sector. Commenting on copper and other minerals still being the bedrock of its economy, Bonnett said that “Zambia is not different to any other African country in that mining is its biggest earner of foreign exchange.
“But it had to make a shift towards more service-orientated businesses.” Although the country had also been beset by ongoing challenges such as irregular electricity supply, it had worked hard to address these, Bonnett added.
As to the infrastructural demand required by developments for the middle- and upper-income markets, such as the mushrooming of satellite towns, Zambia is working hard towards cushioning the primary sector blows of commodity price volatility while staying the course towards diversified economic growth.
As such Zambia has shown that through private development projects like Roma Park, and the overarching potential it has of marketing the country as an attractive equity destination, Zambia is fast making progress in freeing its economy from being primarily copper-price dominated, Bonnett said.
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Zambia’s property market is attracting significant foreign direct investment. – Duncan Bonnett
