KALUMBILA, ZAMBIA – First Quantum Minerals, through its Sentinel Mine at Kalumbila, has partnered with government to support initiatives to improve the capacity of local businesses to enhance supply of goods and services with local content, as well as economic diversification to cushion potential economic turbulence that may arise due to the rise and fall of the copper price.
The mining firm runs a Local Business Development Programme to help remove barriers to small and medium enterprise growth, and link local businesses to economic opportunities in the mine, Kalumbila Town and beyond, including international market linkages.
Through its Trident Foundation, the mine has been improving business activities since 2011, having built capacity internally to identify gaps and opportunities.
To drive this agenda, the mine needs to collaborate with government and other stakeholders to avoid duplication and achieve more. is are working with the Accelerated Growth for SMEs (AGS) programme, which is funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) and implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Industry (MCTI) of Zambia, said Community Affairs Manager Joseph Ngwira.
Mr Ngwira was speaking on the side-lines of a graduation ceremony for local entrepreneurs who had undergone a five-day local business development training course conducted by the AGS in collaboration with the Trident Foundation.
“Why are we doing this? It is to ensure that we promote local content in terms of products and services needed by the mine, and also to broaden, to diversify, to reduce dependence on mine businesses. To get people to look outside the mine industry and do other activities that are more sustainable. Through partnerships such as working with AGS, we know that sustainable results in terms of our local entrepreneurs improving their business will be achieved” Mr. Ngwira explained.
“We are doing this as a way of reducing dependency on the mine, growing the business houses and the business opportunities within, to get our local communities to tap into the value chain and value addition in so many other activities that are independent from the mining sector, especially agribusiness because it is sustainable founded on renewable resources,” he explained.
Mr Ngwira said that the Trident Foundation formalised and trained local businesses from Musele Chiefdom, and that the candidates were selected from a village-level with Musele Chamber of Commerce, offering business formalisation, training and selected micro-loans to local entrepreneurs.
He added that interested business people had to show commitment by registering their business with PACRA before being eligible for training and accessing micro-loans.
“The programme is in three stages; the first stage is to identify business opportunities; the next level is improving the business, and the third stage is to sustain the business activities. So, it is a continual improvement process that we have started and this is something that will go on through next year and repeated as participants graduate.
The main principle of the mining firm’s Local Business Development Policy is the systematic and on-going transfer of procurement of goods and services with local content to local suppliers. The mine has established a set of procedures to ensure that the policy is translated into action.
FQM believes that the long-term economic growth potential in Kalumbila District should not be narrowly considered as being mining-only, but that business people with a long-term view are encouraged to look at secondary economic activities triggered by the demand being generated in the new Kalumbila Town.Ends
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