Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has assured the Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) of his readiness to unlock all rigidities in Zambia to allow Jospong’s conglomerate to revolutionise the waste and technology sectors up to the levels in Ghana.
Waste management giants, Zoomlion has been in Zambia since 2011 with a staff strength of about 200.
President Hichilema expressed satisfaction about what Ghana has done so far through Jospong to be able to create value from the waste menace.
He was addressing leaders of the Jospong Group of Companies at the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP) in Accra during a working visit to Ghana.
President Hichilema said leaders of Africa have shifted focus on talking politics to how to create opportunities for the African people and that is the new paradigm on the table.
“We don’t need you to persuade us to give you the opportunity to operate, it is our responsibility to build African businesses that will give jobs to our people,” he assured.
President Hichilema was categorical in his assurance to the JGC that, he will immediately set up a committee at the Zambia Presidency to coordinate with the Jospong team to start work as a matter of urgency.
“We won an election massively, and we are going to walk the talk to improve the lives of the people,” he stressed, adding that Africans must learn how to choose their leaders so that these leaders can work to the larger benefit of the people.
The Executive Chairman, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong who received the entourage with his wife, Mrs. Adelaide Araba Agyepong and key executives of the JGC said the nature of African waste is that organic waste constitute 61%.
He said, “we therefore must turn all that component of waste into fertiliser and the rest which are plastics 14%, leather, glass 3%, textiles 2% and e-waste 5% among others was exactly what Jospong is doing in Africa”.
Dr. Siaw Agyepong assured the Zambian President and his entourage of an immediate action in that regard where several waste recycling plants and mechanisms will be put in place to ride their cities of the waste menace.
The President was accompanied by the Zambian Ministers for Tourism, Rodney Sikumba; Mines and Minerals, Paul Kabuswe; and the Ambassador to Ghana and Ghana’s Ambassador to Zambia together with members of the diplomatic corps among others.
The entourage later toured the waste management facility to abreast themselves with its operations.
