• Zambians must understand the economic benefits of tobacco.
• Tobacco is adding some economic value in the whole economic process of Zambia.
• There is need to start looking at policies that will encourage more investments in tobacco production.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Leaf Zambia in Eastern Province has called for the formulation of policies that will encourage more investments in Zambia’s tobacco production.
Speaking in an interview in Chipata, Leaf Operations Manager Dr. Ezekiel Mtonga thanked government for appreciating that tobacco is adding some value to the country’s entire economic process.
Dr. Mtonga noted that there are a lot of energetic people in Eastern Province with vast pieces of land required to grow the tobacco alongside maize and other cash crops.
He disclosed that in its own capacity as an investor, JTI is targeting to reach the level of Malawi whose government relies on the crop for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.
“One of the indicators to show that we are targeting to reach the level of Malawi as JTI is that in Malawi, the whole country grows tobacco and the government of Malawi relies on tobacco for GDP growth. But JTI in its own capacity as an investor, one of the issues to show that that’s where we are heading is the investment where we are sitting today.”
“We are giving confidence to tobacco growers that we are not going tomorrow, we are here and we will remain here, as long as the farmers are there, we will continue growing the tobacco. I need to thank the government now that they have appreciated that tobacco is adding some economic value in the whole economic process of Zambia. So that is one component, we need to start looking at policies that will encourage more investments in the tobacco production in Zambia,” Dr. Mtonga said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mtonga has stressed the need for Zambians to understand the economic benefits tobacco is giving to the people especially in Chipata district, noting that negative sentiments about the industry by those who do not appreciate the sector are chasing away serious investors.
“Zambia is very stable economically and politically but the confusion comes in when we have few people who do not understand the tobacco industry and they start talking about the negatives and not the positives. Every situation has got its pros and cons but what we see now is that people are just condemning tobacco, and that is scaring away serious investors.”
“We need to reach a point where people should be able to be factual, look at real issues and also understand how much economic benefit tobacco is giving to the people in particular Chipata district. Apart from the direct money that we are investing in the growers, look at how many people are benefiting indirectly. We have got transporters, lodges, employees and many more,” he stated.