Republican President Hakainde Hichilema says the New Dawn government had come up with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in order to initiate agreements for financial sustainability and development in the country.
President Hichilema was speaking this afternoon when he officially launched the Public Private Collaboration for Broadening access to Finance at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Kenneth Kaunda Wing in Lusaka.
Speaking at the launch where he addressed Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as marketeers, the Head of State said his administration had found the nation’s coffers emptied under the previous PF regime and had to turn to PPPs for financial, economic and developmental sustainability.
“The reason we conceived this idea of the Public Private Partnership is because there was no money in the treasury. We found no money but only debts which we had defaulted on in 2020 then we decided to come up with this partnership as a way of finding solutions given that what we had inherited was difficult,” said President Hichilema.
Meanwhile, the President committed ensuring that more partners join the Public Private Collaboration in order to steer growth of the current K1 billion fund to at least K5 billion to provide broader financial support for SMEs and marketeers.
“My target is that we must quickly grow this fund to K5 billion with the banks’ support and in five years or more we can take this fund to over K10 billion,” he said.
President Hichilema furthered reassured the SMEs and marketeers of government’s support for them to settle their loans from the Public Private Collaboration scheme effectively.
“Stay where you are and access the money to put into the business and it is easier now because even the President’s instruction is that all small contracts in the Councils and Ministries must go to you who are beneficiaries of this scheme so that we can help you to pay back,” he added.
The Public Private Collaboration is an initiative between the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and ABSA bank designed to provide financial support to SMEs and marketeers through access of loans.
