The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) 2022 Performance Review

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) is Zambia’s premier economic development Agency with a multifaceted mandate of promoting and facilitating trade, investment and business development in the country. The Agency is also responsible for building and enhancing the country’s investment profile for increased capital inflows, capital formation and employment creation.

They shared their 2022 performance review in a statement by the Zambia Development Agency Acting Director General Mr. Albert Halwampa on January 5th 2023 as follows:

A. Overview of the Business Environment in 2022

Overall, the Country’s macroeconomic environment improved characterised by improved investor confidence. This was triggered by sound economic policies by the Government including stabilization of the macroeconomic fundamentals, implementation of fiscal measures and reaching the IMF Staff Level Agreement on an Extended Credit Facility arrangement with Zambia.

B. Operational Overview

During the period under review, the Agency continued to implement various interventions that were aimed at enhancing the growth and competitiveness of businesses, promoting exports, and attracting investments in the key sectors of the economy.

C. 2022 Performance Highlights

1. Investment Promotion and Business Facilitation

• 351 Investment ventures were registered with an investment of USD 8.59 billion compared to 255 investment ventures recorded in the same period of 2021 with an investment of USD 3.33billion, representing an increase of 157.96 percent.
• The key sectors included Manufacturing; Energy; Mining; Transport; Construction and Agriculture with the highest investment worth US$ 4.0 billion recorded in the construction sector.
• In addition, 74,679 jobs were recorded from the 351 investment ventures registered compared to 24,585 jobs recorded from the 255 investment ventures recorded in the same period of 2021.

2. Actualised Investments

• During the period under review, 184 Investment ventures were monitored recording actualised investment of US$ 4.40 billion and 19,528 jobs. The Agency undertakes monitoring and evaluation as a way of ascertaining the level of project implementation.

3. Export Promotion and Export Development

• Total export earnings significantly increased to US$ 11.77 billion as compared to US$ 11.14 billion in the same period of 2021 representing an increase of 5.66 percent.
• Non-Traditional Exports increased by 33.09 percent to US$ 3.6 billion in 2022 from US$ 2.7 billion in 2021.
• The Agency continued to facilitate the competitiveness of exporters through various services as well as exposure to markets which resulted in deals worth USD 99.61 million of which US$ 74.96 million were confirmed orders and US$ 24.65 million were leads.
• Exports to DRC: In 2022 a total of US$1.45 billion NTEs were exported to DRC compared to USD1.09 Billion in 2021, representing an increase of 32 percent.
• The exports to DRC represents 45 percent of the total NTEs for 2022.

4. Business Development

• 5,523 businesses accessed Business Development Support (BDS) Services including; access to market, finance, technology and training as compared to 4,079 supported in 2021, representing an increase of 35.40 percent.
• As a result 7,247 jobs were recorded in comparison to the same period of 2021 which recorded 6,334 jobs.

Outlook for 2023

• The major factors anticipated to influence the Agency’s performance this year is government policy reforms on the ease of doing business. The reforms will help to improve the competitiveness of the business environment necessary for investment attraction, retention and re-investment.
• The strategic focus by the Agency on domestic investment and progressive measures in the soon to be operationalized Investment, Trade and Business Development (ITBD) Act will lead to increased local investment.
• The Agency is further working to reduce the period for the issuance of Investment Licence to below Ten days.

Source of report: ZDA