Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema revealed he earns 53 000 Kwacha (US $2000) per month while speaking at the Energy Forum for Africa Conference in Lusaka on Wednesday, 14 August 2014
Hichilema urged Zambians home and abroad to invest in the energy sector where demand outstripped supply instead of crying for government jobs where they will get meager monthly salaries of 20 000 Kwacha (US $760).
Let’s encourage Zambians even in the diaspora to invest back home. Why are you sitting there, focusing on brown, bread, yellow bread, pink bread, invest back home, you are in a market where you can access capital at a lower cost, the interest rates are lower in Europe. Ten of you can get together and form five megawatts
Don’t cry about being not given a job, invest in genuine businesses not crying about not being given a job. You want to get a job in Government, do you know how much you will be getting in Government? K20, 000 per month.
Now I will tell you this, the president in this country gets a salary of K53,000. Now the whole of me queuing for K53,000 for what? People don’t understand what they are asking for.
Yet if they got together, 10, 20 of them, [the can now invest] we have now made it possible quickly for them to invest in five megawatts. Zesco, ERB, if the business generates five megawatts you will get a decent amount, you learn to work hard, you learn to be patient
