• Minister of Finance should allocate sufficient funds to dismantling domestic debt.
• Projects whose funding was suspended should be funded.
• There should also be sufficient funds to pay contractors after they have delivered the works.

Zambia Association of Citizen Contractors (ZACCO) says it expects government to allocate adequate resources in next year’s budget towards dismantling debt owed to local contractors and suppliers in the construction value chain.
Association Secretary General Danny Simumba told Money FM News in an interview that the Association also expect government to ensure that projects whose funding was suspended are catered for in the 2022 national budget so that the works can be completed.
Mr. Simumba stated that if the projects are completed, contractors who were engaged on the projects will have the money to run their businesses.
“We expect the Minister of Finance to consider allocating sufficient funds to dismantling domestic debt, particularly money owed to contractors and other suppliers in the construction value chain.”
“We also expect to see in the budget that those projects whose funding was suspended should be funded so that the projects could be completed and also to help those contractors who were engaged on those projects to have the money to run their businesses,” Mr. Simumba said.
He disclosed that when the previous government suspended funding to projects that were not 80 percent complete, a number of contractors were negatively affected because they had already pumped in money, while others had borrowed from banks, and paying back the debts became difficult for them due to lack of payment.
“When that funding was suspended to projects which were not 80 percent complete, a number of contractors were affected in the sense that they had already pumped in money and some had borrowed, so servicing of those debts to the banks became difficult for them because there was not flow of payments,” he noted.
And Mr. Simumba said it is the Association’s expectation that there will be an improvement in payment flow whenever projects are completed, and delivered to government.
“Whenever works are completed, we expect that there will be sufficient funds to pay contractors after they have delivered the works, unlike a situation of waiting. So we are too expectant especially that we even heard ZRA exceeded its revenue target by almost K50 million, so we are hopeful that infrastructural projects will be funded so that contractors can continue to be in business,” he added.