AS Zambia plans to empower its citizens through its mining sector, President Hakainde Hichilema has said his country has learned from neighbouring Tanzania how the Eastern African State managed to organise small scale miners from extraction to the market.
Hichilema who made his maiden trip to Tanzania and welcomed by his host President Samia Suluhu Hassan early this week, said in his tweet post that Zambia is embarking on empowering its people to own mining rights but the SADC member state country learned "a lot" from Tanzania.
On organising small scale miners, his post said Zambia has learned how Tanzania managed to bring the group together from licensing, ex- traction and finding markets for the minerals.
Using his verified Twitter handle @HHichilema, he said: "As we embark on empowering Zambians to own mining rights, #Zambia has a lot to learn from how #Tanzania has organised small scale miners from licensing, extraction & finding markets for the minerals."
After arriving in Lusaka, President Hichilema tweeted to thank Tanzania and its president as he expressed his optimism that the discussion with his counterpart will definitely yield positive results.
"[I] arrived safely home in #Zambia. Had great discussions with HE Samia Suluhu Hassan & optimistic that this visit will definitely yield positive results.
Grateful to our sis- ter, President Hassan & people of #Tanzania for your warm hospitality.
Asante sana #EconomicDiplomacy," he tweeted. While Zambia's Head of State claimed to have learned from its neighbouring state, in 2017 Tanzania enacted the Mine Act to ensure the country and its people benefit from the sector.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The mineral laws just enacted include the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2017; the Natural Wealth and Contracts (Review and Renegotiation of Uncon- scionable terms) Act, 2017; and the Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sover- eignty) Act 2017.
After his post, Isaphy Fundi Kunjombe responded by writing: Myself and 50+ Zambians have formed two mining startups in Kasama and we are waiting for mining licences.
We shall need capital injection for our initial operations before we can find partners for technology and capital. We hope to build industries for value addition."
Another person identified as Francis Ziwele Mbao, PhD responded to President Hichilema's tweet saying:
"Small scale mining is adding value to the Tanzanian econ- omy and livelihoods. We have something to learn from them (even though we trained some of their mining engineers at UNZA in the 1990s)."
