Date: 7th Nov 2022
Author: Minister of Technology and Science, Hon. Felix Mutati
Albert Einstein once remarked, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level it was created.
You have to rise above it to the next level.”
Since the inception of Zambia’s New Dawn Administration, there has been a universal effort to
rise to the next level; an unprecedented drive which must be led by our empowered youth.
As Zambia plays host to this year’s Innovation Africa summit, we welcome our international
guests from a position of pride, progress and committed collaboration to find solutions together.
While there is no doubt that our nation is finally heading in the right direction, only by joining
hands – and brains – can we bring our countries and our region to the forefront of the world of
technology and innovation.
Zambia – like most African nations – is a vibrant multicultural society, bringing together many
tribes, ethnic groups, languages and religions, and perhaps most importantly, a kaleidoscope of
traditions and heritages.
And it is with this strong connection to a multifaceted and diverse past, that our youth now look
to the future, to take inspiration from their own, and each other’s heritages. To learn from the
past to build a better future. Indeed, it is this creative energy, oozing out from a well-educated and talented, yet rightfully frustrated young population, that is being set free by the nation’s new leadership.
In August 2021, Zambia elected a new President, the businessman and church elder, Hakainde
Hichilema. “HH” – or “Bally” meaning “father”as he’s known locally – ran on a platform of change,
promising free education, meal allowances for students, and economic transformation; an ambitious future of hope and promise.
This message, often delivered directly to the country via his popular social media channels,
resonated loudly with the young people – both urban and rural – and he won a landslide victory
against an entrenched incumbent.
Describing education as the “greatest investment” a country can make, President Hichilema’s
first budget made education “free for every citizen”. Going further, it removed student
examination fees and parent-teacher-association fees, which were traditionally charged to a
student’s family.
To ensure this did not lead to overcrowded classrooms, the Government announced the
recruitment of over 30,000 new teachers. Eschewing the bureaucracy of the past, Hichilema
invited the country’s “e-Government” division, the Smart Zambia Institute (SZI), to work together
with the Ministry of Education and the Zambia Police Service (ZPS) to fast-track the processing of
qualified applicants.
The results have been breathtaking. Within just a few months from the jobs being advertised, all
of the positions had been filled by qualified applicants. Over 80 per cent are already on the
Government payroll and are now in the classroom, teaching a new generation of learners.
But this is just the beginning. The Government of Zambia is deepening its “greatest investment”
and next year the annual budget for Education sits at almost $1.5bn.
As part of an ongoing collaboration between the Ministry of Technology and Science and the
Ministry of Education, the Smart Zambia Institute is stepping up again, this time training over
3200 teachers in Digital Literacy. To support this, laptops, powered by the latest Intel Core processors, are being made available to teachers through civil service loan agreements, and the Government now has plans in place to provide highspeed internet to rural schools through satellite services, like Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Perhaps more astonishingly, the country is also on course to launch its own satellite in 2023 from
the Mwembeshi Satellite Earth Station, situated just 90 minutes’ drive from Lusaka’s Ciela Resort,
which hosts this year’s innovation Africa Summit. Clearly Zambia is getting ready for take-off.
Ready to rise to the next level. Behind these ambitious steps, however, lies a more methodical approach to economic development.
As President Hichilema recently said, “Education is the first step to opening the minds of young
people so that they can innovate and seize opportunities.” This is the framework of President Hichilema’s governance. Having spent 15 years preparing in opposition, this administration has come into office with a determined and impressive grand
plan.
As the first country on the continent to default on debt repayments under the previous
administration, Zambia’s new foreign policy has been an outgrowth of its new economic policy;
sensible, safe, reassuring and predicated on a strong and respected Zambia. The Government,
when meeting its neighbours in the region, has referred to itself not as “land-locked” but instead
as “land-linked”.
This strategy of bringing neighbours close before reaching out to global superpowers is indicative
of a Zambia which recognizes the need for the economic transformation, not just of its own
country, but of the region as a whole. Relations between the leadership in Lusaka and their counterparts in Washington DC, Brussels and Beijing are stronger, and more mutually beneficial than ever. The private sector now has its own formal public-private dialogue forum. This year alone, the Government has hosted productive business summits for investors from the the EU, China, the US, and Israel.
Incredibly, during the first six months of the year, Zambia experienced a 45% increase in
international investment. Following this, an historic deal was signed with the IMF – a stamp of
approval for our economic direction – with new significant investments following from the World
Bank. This will create jobs and create opportunities. To further support the requirements of the world’s leading investors, the country is now utilising the best digital infrastructure too, with Microsoft’s Azure Stack platform launched in Lusaka earlier this year.
Against this backdrop, Zambia’s own investments in Education and Digital Literacy can be seen
as the foundations of a much broader strategy; to create a young workforce, capable of seizing
the opportunities of tomorrow, wherever they may come from. This year’s Innovation Africa Summit will showcase projects from all across Zambia, as 20 young people are given the opportunity to demonstrate their innovations to the world. Indeed with so many guests from around the world in town for the summit, we encourage our visitors to enjoy Zambia’s world-class tourist sites. And to pay careful attention to Zambia’s rise. There is a powerful and hopeful current of energy running through this Southern African nation, as strong as the Zambezi River and as inspiring as Victoria Falls..