Zambian president calls on African govts to avoid poor performance in mining industry

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said governments on the African continent must ensure a better regulatory and operating environment to avoid poor performance in the mining industry.

Hichilema made the calls at the opening of the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday.

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He’s among delegates attending the four-day gathering, where mining giants, financiers, government and community leaders are in talks to turn mineral wealth into long-term growth.

This includes efforts to move beyond policy debates to practical solutions that strengthen investor confidence and boost competitiveness, especially for Africa.

But Hichilema said regulatory hurdles need to be addressed urgently to maximise returns.

“We are building institutions. We had a weak base when we took office: institutional weaknesses, yet those institutions are critical to the support of the industry. The Minerals Regulation Commission, which was never there, is now up, which will help us to streamline the approval processes, make it very clear, the path should be very clear for any investor, but also root out inconsistencies, multiplicity of rules, procedures that creates some problems for investment and for the government.”