Maravi

‘Mines must be compelled to list on stock markets'

‘Mines must be compelled to list on stock markets'
By Kabanda Chulu
Mon 13 Feb. 2012, 12:59 CAT

MINING companies must be compelled to give Zambian citizens the opportunity to participate in their activities through listing of a certain percentage of shares at the stock markets, says Wala Chabala.

And Dr Chabala, who is chief executive officer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Zambians should be allowed to participate in the US$500 million sovereign bond which the country is intending to issue.

Making submissions to the parliamentary economic affairs committee chaired by Zambezi West parliamentarian Charles Kakoma, on the theme ‘Participation of Zambian citizens in economic development', Dr Chabala said there was no better place for local people to participate in national economic affairs than capital markets.

He said measures should be put in place to ensure that citizens were given an opportunity to participate in the largest economic sector of the country.

"It is not acceptable that there is only one company in the mining sector through which Zambian citizens can participate in economic development. Even this opportunity is limited and we submit that unless mining companies are somehow compelled to give Zambian citizens the opportunity to participate in them for economic development, this will never happen," Dr Chabala said.

"We propose that the compulsion be in form of some monetary penalties or putting some restrictions on the mining licence conditions. On the other hand, an incentive could be given, such as a tax concession, where the mining companies afford Zambian citizens an opportunity to participate in economic development through them."

He said there must be no excuse for those multi-national mining and other companies that had already allowed citizens of other countries to participate in them by not extending the same opportunities to Zambians.

"Another economic sector that is key to the economic development of the country and through which Zambian citizens can participate in economic development is the telecommunications industry. Many Zambians have a mobile phone for which they spend thousands of kwacha per week to use for communication," Dr Chabala said.

"Mobile telephony companies also spend billions to promote their products but there are sentiments that these companies should stop giving out these billions and allow Zambians to participate in their ownership and those billions could be distributed as profits shared among a cross section of Zambian citizens in form of dividends."

Dr Chabala proposed that Zambians had demonstrated capacity and should be allowed to participate in the sovereign bond by having a proportion of it issued in the Zambian capital markets.

Labels: LUSE, MINING

posted by MrK @ 2:50 PM