• Cotton Board of Zambia has partnered and agreed to trade with FICOTA.
• FICOTA seeks to transform cotton into textile.
• The hope for the future of the Cotton industry in Africa is to rebrand the sector.

Cotton Board of Zambia says the country’s Cotton Sector has potential to create more than 6,000 jobs in factories if value addition is re-introduced especially with spinning textiles.
Board Chief Executive Officer Sunduzwayo Banda told Money FM News that the 376,000 local farmers who grow the crop have over the years however faced challenges in getting fair prices from cotton companies, quality of inputs, quality of seed and poor extension services.
Mr. Sunduzwayo revealed that in order to address some of the challenges that Zambia’s Cotton sector faces, the Board has partnered and agreed to trade with FICOTA, which is a product of the African Chamber of Trade and Commerce (ACC) based in Yaoundé-Cameroon with international partners.
“Through the FICOTA project, the ACC envisages addressing the cotton industrial value chain in Africa to build an interactive, credible, and reliable infrastructure. It works in partnership with the International Organization of French Speaking Nations (OIF) through the Tripartite Initiative of Diversification and Densification (DEDICOT) of Cotton for added value in the production and transformation value chain,” Mr. Mr. Sunduzwayo said.
He noted that the African continent has similar challenges, therefore the need to address them as a unit because Africa deserves intra trade and achieve value addition other than pursuing overseas markets.
“FICOTA seeks to transform cotton into textile, garments, accessories, and others products, to include products from byproducts of cotton. This project is similar to The Salon International de Cotton (SICOT) launched in 2018 in Burkina Faso during the Koudogou, an international cotton conference. The partnership was reached in Cairo at the ongoing capacity building course in cotton research and textile technology.”
“The hope for the future of the Cotton industry in Africa is to rebrand the sector into a major income spinner for the small holder farmer and reduce poverty thru value addition and value for cultivation. The hope for the future of the Cotton industry in Africa is to rebrand the sector into a major income spinner for the small holder farmer and reduce poverty through value addition and value for cultivation,” he explained.
And Chair of African Chamber of Trade and Commerce Barrister Mary Concilia Anchang said Zambia is one of the countries that have come on board to support the cotton transformation project.
Barrister Anchang stated that the project has to do with local production that can create new jobs and opportunities especially for the African youth and women.
“This is one of the biggest initiatives that we have as the ACC to have Zambia on board as a country partner for the cotton transformation project that we are running which has to do with local production and transformation quantity of cotton in sustainable quantities that can create new jobs and opportunities especially for the African youth and women.”
“Zambia coming on board in Egypt where the Egyptian government is spearheading this initiative, so see how Africans become owners of their own natural resources that will transform into a wealth creating opportunity.”
“Continental Free Trade Agree (CFTA) cannot be successful if there is no increased quantities and production for local transformation to be sustainable and having Zambia on board is very instrumental to see how we partner with the East African countries,” she said.