Zambia charts daring funding future with $2 billion offers inked at IZIC

Lusaka – Zambia showcased its financial ambition to the world with the internet hosting of the inaugural Put money into Zambia Worldwide Convention (IZIC) at Lusaka’s Mulungushi Worldwide Convention Centre. Spanning three days from 16–18 July, the occasion gathered authorities officers, worldwide traders and enterprise leaders below the theme “Driving Generational Transformative Investments Via Joint Ventures and Partnerships”.

For President Hakainde Hichilema, the message was clear: Zambia is not only open for enterprise – it’s actively dismantling boundaries that traditionally stifled funding.

“We have now realised that authorities bureaucracies can weigh companies down,” President Hichilema advised delegates. “So, we have now established a Presidential Supply Unit… to speed up the decision of points that hinder enterprise operations.” 

This new unit, he defined, will instantly deal with investor considerations and streamline resolution‑making. His remarks set the tone for a convention centered as a lot on implementation as ambition.

Massive numbers, strategic sectors

The headline figures rapidly adopted: by mid‑convention, the Zambia Improvement Company (ZDA) had facilitated Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) value roughly ZMW 46.6bn (round $2bn). The agreements span important sectors – vitality, agriculture and mining – aligning with Zambia’s broader imaginative and prescient for financial diversification and resilience.

Among the many highlights was a three way partnership between US-based Anzana Electrical Group and state electrical energy utility ZESCO, concentrating on vitality infrastructure enlargement. Different MoUs lined renewable vitality, transport corridors and agro‑processing, all aimed toward decreasing Zambia’s dependency on copper alone.

Albert Halwampa, Director‑Common of the ZDA, described the convention as a turning level: “Our purpose is not only to draw funding however to anchor it in particular financial zones, enhance investor providers and guarantee lengthy‑time period returns,” he mentioned. “We’re actively addressing challenges round energy, land entry and logistics to construct actual investor confidence.”

The UK’s worth‑addition pitch

Calvin Bailey, the UK Commerce Envoy to Southern Africa, introduced a regional perspective, saying Britain’s £2.5bn mobilisation plan to drive worth‑added mining and significant‑minerals improvement. 

He careworn that Zambia’s mining sector should evolve past extraction to processing and expertise‑pushed provide chains. “UK companies investing in Africa should assist guarantee taxes are paid, expertise are transferred, native jobs are created, the atmosphere is protected, and communities are considerably engaged,” Bailey mentioned.

He described this “new worth‑including strategy” as key to linking Zambia’s assets with international inexperienced‑expertise markets – a imaginative and prescient strongly aligned with Britain’s important‑minerals technique.

China deepens its footprint

China’s presence was equally outstanding. Chinese language Ambassador Han Jin praised Zambia’s central location, enterprise‑pleasant reforms and regulatory framework, whereas encouraging companies to translate convention networking into concrete offers. “Chinese language enterprises have taken root in Zambia and are actively contributing to the nation’s improvement,” he famous.

Chinese language corporates contributed over $124,000 to assist the convention, and a China‑Zambia commerce seminar ran in parallel, spotlighting joint‑enterprise successes in copper, metal and fertiliser.

Reform because the engine of development

Past the offers, the convention underscored coverage as Zambia’s true aggressive edge. The Presidential Supply Unit, enhancements to land‑titling techniques, and energy concessions inside particular financial zones (SEZs) had been repeatedly highlighted as indicators of a extra agile state. President Hichilema’s purpose is to double the scale of Zambia’s financial system by 2031, an bold however achievable goal, he argued, if reforms stay constant and investor confidence retains rising.

A various investor base

Maybe the strongest takeaway from IZIC 2025 was the breadth of investor curiosity: US, UK, Chinese language and regional African firms all expressed optimism about Zambia’s trajectory. The nation’s location – providing direct entry to eight neighbouring markets – was typically cited as a novel asset. 

Halwampa emphasised the ZDA’s function in translating that curiosity into tangible initiatives by way of enhanced investor providers, particular financial zones and focused public‑non-public partnerships.

Outlook: From guarantees to initiatives

Because the convention got here to a detailed, delegates had been reminded that MoUs are solely the beginning line. The actual problem is supply – turning signatures into development, manufacturing and job creation.

But there was broad consensus that Zambia now has each the imaginative and prescient and the institutional momentum to make that occur. President Hichilema’s reform agenda, mixed with multi‑billion‑greenback commitments and international partnerships, positions the nation as one among Africa’s most promising rising funding locations.

IZIC 2025 supplied greater than convention optimism: it laid out a roadmap for Zambia’s financial transformation, constructed on public‑non-public synergy, focused reforms and a transparent ambition to maneuver from mining exporter to worth‑added manufacturing hub. If momentum holds, Zambia’s daring funding guess may nicely repay – reshaping its financial system for a brand new era.