• The country is still having challenges to accrue benefits from its natural resources.
• Mining sector has not had the kind of impact on the lives of citizens as anticipated.
• There is need to interrogate how much money the mining firms pay as taxes.

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has observed that the country’s mining sector has not had the much anticipated impact on the lives of citizens.
Speaking when he featured on Money FM’s Policy, Power and Money radio program, Organization Board Member Partner Siabutuba said this is because the country has continued to export its minerals in their raw form and when they come back as finished products, citizens have to buy them at an exorbitant price.
Mr. Siabutuba stated that the country is currently failing to afford to buy equipment for local miners and equipment for the road sector that are priced in US dollars to be able to maintain the roads.
“We are still having challenges as a country to accrue benefits from our natural resources and our mining sector has not had the kind of impact on the lives of citizens as we anticipated for a number of reasons. We are exporting our minerals in their raw form and when they come back as finished products we have to buy them at an expensive price.”
“We cannot afford to buy equipment that our local miners must use, we can’t afford to buy equipment for our road sector for example that are priced in US dollars to be able to maintain our roads. So there are a lot of other things including domestic goods eventually that are made out of our minerals and they come back at very exorbitant prices,” Mr. Siabutuba noted.
He added that it remains questionable if Government will be able to turn around the economy owing to increased copper production and exports because the country is still struggling to accrue benefits from its natural resources.
“And so we are having a challenge, whether or not we will be able to turn around our economy as a result of increased production, I think it is a big question.”
Mr. Siyabutuba stressed the need to interrogate how much money the mining firms pay as taxes, as the country still has historical challenges around how much tax the
“We must agree that it is not enough to increase copper or mineral production and increased exports if we don’t interrogate issues around taxation, how much money do mining firms pay into the country as taxes. We still have historical challenges around how much our mines are taxing or are paying tax to this country.”
“It looks like when we want to collect the kind of money that we want as a country, we end up injuring each other and this is the reason why to date, the relationship between government and the mining firms in the past regime has not been very good, there’s been kind of misunderstanding and lack of clear cooperation between government and mining firms,” he stated.
He said the country must get down to where and how citizens can accrue benefits from the mining sector, adding that one way of doing this is by ensuring that Zambia beings to process its minerals.
“We need to revitalize ZAMEFA and other companies that should process products and begin to manufacturer products that we need to use as a country,” Mr. Siabutuba added.