The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Zambia

  • Osinbajo on one-day visit to Zambia

    Osinbajo on one-day visit to Zambia

    Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday traveled to Zambia on a one-day official visit to the country.

    During the trip, the Vice President will meet with the Zambian President, Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu and also hold a courtesy visit with the Vice President Inonge Wina.

    Prof. Osinbajo, according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, will be participating on Tuesday in the commissioning of the 1.5 million tonnes Dangote Cement plant and 30 MW coal-fired power plant in Ndola, Zambia.

    The Vice President will return to Abuja later on Tuesday.

  • Upbeat Nigeria U-23s arrive in Zambia

    Upbeat Nigeria U-23s arrive in Zambia

    Nigeria’S U-23 team led by coach Samson Siasia arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, late on Thursday confident they can go past their hosts in a crucial All Africa Games (AAG) qualifier.

    Nigeria and Zambia played out a goalless draw in the first leg in Abuja three weeks ago.

    The return match is fixed for early afternoon in Lusaka today with the overall winners going through to the football event of the 2015 All Africa Games in Congo-Brazzaville in September.

    The Nigeria team, known as Dream Team VI, have been fortified with several new players including three from the U-20 team that won the African Youth Championship in Senegal last month.

    Enyimba midfielder Kingsley Sokari told AfricanFootball.com Nigeria will qualify for the AAG.

    “It won’t be an easy game but I believe we will qualify,” said Sokari, who has been capped at full international level by Nigeria.

  • Siasia maps out strategy to beat Zambia

    Siasia maps out strategy to beat Zambia

    •Wants to control midfield
    •Hails Awoniyi, Mohammed’s qualities

    Dream Team VI handler, Samson Siasia has vowed to control the midfield and the entire play away to Zambia in a strategy he believes will give victory to his team and a qualifying ticket for the All Africa Games (AAG).

    Dream Team VI has a date on April 12 with Zambia in Lusaka and Nigeria’s U- 23 national team’s chief coach is leaving no stone unturned to ensure his team beat Zambia to pick the AAG ticket.

    “We need to work hard to control the midfield in the match against Zambia in Lusaka. If we are able to do this then we will surely win over there and thereby qualify for the All Africa Games.

    Answering the question on how to stop the Zambians in Lusaka knowing fully well that the team may change tactics from defending that they did in the first leg to coming out to attack in the return leg at home to the Nigerian team, Siasia said he already has answers to this.

    “My game is always attacking. I want to go to Lusaka to attack and defend as well too. Having looked again at the first leg game we played here in Abuja, even the Zambian Coach knew that we created enough chances to score goals. He (Zambian Coach) has been very careful to tell his players not to come out and this is where we have to capitalise to score goals.

    “We are targeting any player that comes in now that can perform better than the ones we already have here that are not doing that well. We are looking at the striking position, the midfield and the defense whichever one that is not playing well. That is what we are trying to do.

    “In the first match we played against Zambia here in Abuja, I think we didn’t do that well from the right and left midfield. The qualities were not there and we didn’t see enough one on one attacking on the right and left side. We want to try and improve in those areas. The more crosses we have the more chances we will get in scoring goals. We want to work more on the midfield.

     

  • Zambia down Rwanda in McKinstry’s first game

    Zambia down Rwanda in McKinstry’s first game

    Zambia downed Rwanda 2-0 in what was Johnny McKinstry’s first game in charge of the Amavubi.

    Goals from Rainford Kalaba and Allan Mukuka secured a hard-fought win for Chipolopolo at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday.

    The hosts controlled most of the game, but were made to work hard for their goals with Kalaba opening the scoring just after the hour mark.

    Second-half substitute Mukuka teed up the TP Mazembe midfielder, who made no mistake from close range.

    Provider turned scorer in the 82nd minute, Mukuka finding the back of the net to seal victory for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) champions.

  • Pascal tips Dream Team to crush Zambia

    Pascal tips Dream Team to crush Zambia

    Former Dream Team star, Pascal Patrick believes the Nigerian U-23 side will beat Zambia over two legs and qualify for the All Africa Games in Congo.

    Nigeria hosts Zambia in All Africa Games qualifier today in Abuja. It is the first leg, last round match and the overall winner over the two legs will book a place at the All Africa Games. And Pascal, a Nigerian U-23 star that won the Olympic Gold in ’96, says the Nigerians shall prevail over their Southern African opponents.

    “I really don’t know much about the Zambians but I know we will beat them and qualify for the All Africa Games.

    “I don’t think the Zambians can match us at this level because of the quality we possess which I don’t think they have.

    “And you should also remember that we played two qualifiers against Gabon to make this round, while the Zambians didn’t and that makes us more competitive than they are,” Pascal opined.

    But despite his unwavering optimism, the former Royal Antwerp of Belgium forward admits the Nigerian team must also show improvements.

    “Even though I believe we will beat them, I think we need to show improvements. The game against Gabon in Abuja wasn’t very good and I hope they have improved since then,” he added.

  • Dream Team eye big win against Zambia

    Dream Team eye big win against Zambia

    The Nigeria U-23  players and officials are calm about the prospect of playing the Zambia U-23 team on Saturday and they are scheduled to play a final warm up game today in Abuja against yet-to-be-named opponents.

    The Dream Team VI defeated Gabon’s U-23 team 6-1 on aggregate in the last round and they are to face Zambia in the country this weekend before the deciding leg in Lusaka in a fortnight.

    The Media Officer of the team,Timi Ebikagboro told SportingLife that 22 players are presently sweating it out in Abuja and that they are expecting one or two foreign-based players to arrive before the Saturday tie to beef up the home-based players.

    He confirmed that the emphasis of the team’s head coach, Samson Siasia is to raise a formidable team that will be able to beat the Zambians well here in Nigeria before contemplating the return leg in the Southern African nation.

  • Ahead of Zambia: Dream Team captain sure of improvement

    Ahead of Zambia: Dream Team captain sure of improvement

    Dream Team VI captain,  Erhun Obanor has assured  that they will make improvements ahead of the final round of qualifiers for the 2015 All Africa Games against Zambia.

    The Nigerian U-23’s struggled to a 2-0 win over their Gabonese counterparts in Abuja on Saturday – a result which meant they won 6-1 on aggregate – but were hardly convincing and Obanor said they will improve before facing Zambia.

    “We made a lot of mistakes but the most important thing was the victory,” he said of the Gabon match.

    “We just need to improve before we face Zambia and I know we will because we have played better in our previous games but I really don’t know what happened against Gabon here.

    “We beat them 4-1 in their home and that was because we played well but sometimes you don’t play well,” he told sl10.ng.

    But when asked if he knew anything about the Zambians, the Insurance of Benin defender had some interesting words.

    “I really don’t care about them. Whether they are good or not is their business, as I am only focused on my team.

    “It is the same football because the Gabonese were also good and we beat them so there’s no problem if they’re good,” he said.

  • Zambia to safeguard jobs at Lumwana mine

    Zambia eased regulations preventing tax refunds to exporters as President Edgar Lungu said the government “won’t allow a single mining job” to be lost in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.

    The new rules, effective on Monday, allow exporters to provide import documents from transit countries instead of requiring paperwork from the final destination, a Government Gazette signed by Zambia Revenue Authority Commissioner-General Berlin Msiska shows. The document was sent to Bloomberg News.

    The edict only applies to future payments and not money already owed, with the revenue authority planning to start talks over a backlog of disputed claims “on a company-by-company basis,” said Jackson Sikamo, president of the Lusaka-based Zambia Chamber of Mines.

    Lungu said the government was also in talks with mining companies over a new higher-royalty tax system that became effective in January and which operators say may result in 12,000 job cuts this year. Barrick Gold Corp. said it would start the process of idling its open-cast Lumwana mine in the northwest of the country because of low copper prices and the new royalty system that replaces a tax on profits with levies on sales of as much as 20 per cent.

    The government “won’t allow a single mining job to be lost and has accordingly directed the Ministry of Mines to ensure that operations at Lumwana mine are not idled,” Lungu said in a statement posted to the presidency’s Facebook account.

    Zambia is “rapidly addressing” concerns over the higher mineral royalties, he said.

  • Zambia confirms for Dream Team

    Zambia’s U-23 side will be the Dream Team’s next opponents in the race to the 11th All-Africa Games after they must have seen off Gabon, following the withdrawal of Madagascar.

    Siasia’s wards lashed the Gabonese 4-1 in Libreville on Saturday with the return leg set for Abuja on March 7. The winner of the two-leg fixture is billed to play the winner between Zambia and Madagascar, but the Indian Ocean Islanders withdrew from the race, handing an automatic final round ticket to the Zambians.

    The first leg of the final round fixture will take place in Nigeria only two weeks  after the return leg with the Gabonese.

    Also at the weekend, Burundi shocked DR Congo 1-0 in Kinshasa, Sudan edged hosts Ethiopia 2-1 in Dire Dawa and Uganda and Mozambique drew 0-0 in Maputo.

    Zimbabwe, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have also reached the final round of qualifiers following the withdrawals of Swaziland, Tunisia, Guinea Bissau and Libya.

  • AfDB gives $22m loan to Zambia

    AfDB gives $22m loan to Zambia

    THE Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a $22.49 million loan to Zambia for the development of Lake Tanganyika.

    This project has been formulated as part of the long-term vision for Zambia (Vision 2030) by which it intends to become “a prosperous middle-income country by 2030”.

    Its aim is help implement the amended Sixth National Development Plan, which covers 2013-2016 and to facilitate and accelerate “economic growth and development in the service of the people”.

    Accordingly, it aims to stimulate job creation and rural development, in this way boosting inclusive growth.

    The project will be implemented over a five-year period in two districts, Mpulungu and Nsama, which surround the drainage basin of the lake and which have 157,830 inhabitants. The incidence of poverty is much higher in these districts than in other districts of Zambia.

    Specifically, the project will promote sustainable and equitable management and use of the lake’s natural resources, and it will help improve the livelihoods of local communities (in the drainage basin of the lake), by encouraging the development of economic infrastructure and human resources, and by strengthening market linkages and the development of value chains for the products of natural resources.

    The project should improve the fish supply (catches) by 20 to 25 per cent. In addition, it will help members of the local population adopt sustainable practices and technologies for the management of land, forests and water, with the goal of limiting land degradation and deforestation, and boosting agricultural production.

    Furthermore, the project should have a positive, virtuous impact on the conservation and preservation of the area’s wildlife and heritage and on specific resources – particularly the national park – which can play a role in local economic development.

    Unleashing the full potential of the lake’s resources will increase the incomes of rural households. Project implementation will be participative, so that local people take ownership of it and ensure its sustainability.

    The total estimated cost of the project is $29.62 million. In addition to AfDB, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is making a contribution with a $7 million donation and the Zambian government is committing $190,000.