03/25/2026
The UPND government focuses too much on the macro environment but does very little to support grassroots businesses in the micro environment. As government, they need to focus on both micro and macro environments. If the government is supporting big foreign multinationals, who happen to be the big contributors to our GDP, they should level the playing field by also supporting Zambia's small and medium size businesses
As for which president is the best, all presidents have tried what they could do. Following independence, nationalization of state resources was appropriate at the time otherwise Western powers would have just continued exploiting us and independence would have lost meaning. Dr. Kaunda was big on educating Zambians with his free education policies and he was heavily involved in the liberation of Southern African states. His downfall from an economic standpoint begun when the copper prices plummeted on the international market throughout the 1970s. This adversely affected our forex revenues, and coupled with his inefficient socialist policies, meant that when he left, the economy was in a mess.
FTJ's privatization policies were timely and necessary but the ex*****on of such policies were too radical, careless and full of corruption. As a result, he too left the economy in bad shape, poverty levels were worse when he left than they were when he first came on the scene. To cut a long story short, he messed up big time and many Zambians suffered the economic hardship of his poor judgements as president. However, we should note that it was he who initiated the process of getting Zambia into the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which led to significant debt reduction under Mwanawasa's watch, it was FTJ was actually started the process.
Presidents Mwanwasa, Banda and Sata all did a satisfactory job managing the Zambian economy despite the usually challenges which come with population growth and that occasional drought. The big problem really begins under the leadership of ECL, this is where things really start to go downhill fast with excessive borrowing, economic mismanagement and bad governance. The Covid pandemic in 2020 further compounded the situation, leading to the economy contracting and to Zambia becoming the first African country to default on its loans post COVID. Ultimately, ECL drove the Zambian economy to the ground and he paid the price - he lost the elections by a whopping one million votes!
Now comes HH who inherits a bad economy, restructures it in collaboration with the IMF, which then buys us more time and eases the pressure on debt servicing and repayments. Copper production is up slightly, the demand on the international market is high due to global transitions to clean energy, which translates into increased revenues and an impressive appreciation of the Kwacha to the same levels UPND found it when they came to power.
But the strange thing in all this is despite all the positive macro economic indicators for Zambia, Zambians on the ground are not able to see or enjoy these benefits. Poverty levels remain the same, the debt has not reduced, and we are still nowhere near producing the 3 million metric tonnes of copper than the UPND regime had promised to achieve within 10 years. We are not even at 1 million yet!
Jobs remain scarce too, especially in the private sector, CDF loans are cancelled because of corruption (borrowers who are likely party cadres failing to pay back), and domestic debt has increased, for instance, minister of finance earlier in 2025 projected it to be at K15 billion, but by mid last year, it increased to around K30 billion, which is double the amount originally projected for the year 2025.
So we can't rationally conclude that the current president is better or more competent than the 6 presidents before them. Even though the economic indicators look good for the macro environment, the question is are Zambians feeling it? Increased GDP is good, but Zambians need to feel something 🦅
