By Jacob Mulenga in Lusaka
President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia has asked youths in the country to be innovative to accelerate the nation’s economic transformation.
The President was addressing a youth conference at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Friday.
According to President Hichilema, “We were honoured to grace the second National Youth Indaba under our administration held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre this morning.
“Under the theme “Transforming Minds for Accelerated Youth Development,” we urged our young people to take advantage of an enabling environment by being innovative and in the economic transformation of our country.
“Zambia is mainly young people hence the deliberate intervention targeted at our youth such as free education, increased bursary in our educational institutions, restoration of meal allowances, skills development programmes under CDF among others.
“We also called on our young people to be innovative by grabbing opportunities for self-employment by embracing the spirit of hard work so they can transition from being job seekers to job creators.
“We would like to see our young people take lead in digital innovation so we can actualize our vision of “Invest in Zambia, Make in Zambia, and Buy Zambian.”
“We further reiterated our desires to implement positive discrimination in the award of contracts to entities that are producing and manufacturing in Zambia”.
