According to official government reports, the Ministry […]

According to official government reports, the Ministry of Tourism was cited for failing to collect K5 million following the initiation of the Tourism Development Credit Facility (TDCF), which commenced in 2003 with an allocation of K20 million.

Further details revealed that the ministry failed to register with the Ministry of Lands after most of the borrowers used land as collateral.

“In a letter dated 15th December 2025, the ministry of Justice advised that the loas advanced to the borrowers where effectively mortgages in that landed property was used as collateral and thus the said mortgages should have been registered with the ministry of lands,” the Auditor General’s Report revealed.

 The AG’ Report indicated that the registration of mortgages has not been done despite the urge, and no enforcement has been undertaken by the ministry.

 Commenting on the matter, Economist Notulu Salwindi observed that the country generally has a culture of nonpayment of loans, a status quo that is heavily depriving the state of much-needed revenue.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times— ZBT, Salwindi stated, “For an average Zambian we lack the responsibility of knowing that money borrowed is supposed to be paid back within the agreed time.”

He argued that the non-payment can easily be dealt with through the credit bureau, scrutinizing recipients before they are allocated the taxpayer’s money.

“Organizations already know the culture that has been exhibited over time, and they are supposed to put in place that which ensures that recipients of these monies are people that are creditworthy. We have the credit bureau, which is supposed to provide ratings even at the individual level.”

“Due diligence is not done; instead of selecting people that are genuine, you select people because they bring a profile that looks solid in terms of being able to pay because they need that money,” he added.

Salwindi observed that nonpayment culture stretches across various funds and loans in the system because there are no strict measures at play.

He blamed the increase in the lack of payment on the corrupt systems that have been established, where certain officials facilitate for individuals to include on the recipients list withholding the whole process of due diligence.

This ultimately makes it difficult to claim or complain because the officers are afraid they might be exposed.

 “Because we don’t ensure that the rating is prudently done, most of these government institutions have people that fasttrack payments or offer favors to be on the list of payments, which is corruption. Because of that, we don’t scrutinize the recipients, and the complacency in terms of getting the same issue of CDF.”

 Interestingly, Salwindi revealed the devastating effects of the trend, such as the country missing out on collecting maximum revenue to handle competitive needs as well as the lack of increase in productivity because the funds are not reaching the intended Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) “We are missing on increasing productivity of the nation; retrieving that money becomes impossible, and we have competing needs where we need to allocate resources efficiently and other factors that could have benefited the nation, and we make habitual individuals riding on camps getting money for free; they form cartels with people in the offices.

Article by Samuel Mutale