ALTHOUGH he had no known advanced professional qualifications in economics, he showed deep understanding of economic issues.
His economic strategies looked like wishful thinking or indeed mere daydreams when he espoused them while in the opposition.
Yes, President Michael Sata astutely understood economic concerns, albeit with preoccupation on how the economic achievements could
benefit Zambians.
To some learned experts his economic arguments, at first, may not have looked sensible as they were, seemingly, contrary to what they read in the books of renowned authors like Adam Smith, who is considered to be the father of modern economics.
I remember calling him in 2008 for a story on the foreign exchange market and what he would do on the performance of the Kwacha, should he one day rule Zambia.
In his typical manner, instead of directly answering the question, he first lamented as to why the Zambian Kwacha was relatively the weakest currency in the region.
He said Zambians parted away with stacks of money when exchanging the Kwacha with any other currency in the region.
As a panacea, he said there was need to (I cannot remember the actual word used here) rebase the Kwacha to make it stronger against other currencies and once in power he would do just that.
Some economic experts I contacted to balance up the story scoffed at him.
Upon winning the elections, I believe his duty was now to champion the Kwacha rebasing idea among his ministers, some who could have had doubts on its feasibility.
In January 2012, Finance Minister Mr Alexander Chikwanda announced that Government was going to rebase the Kwacha by cropping off three zeros and introduce coins for lower-value denominations.
So, effective January 1, 2013, Zambia has had a rebased Kwacha.
At one time while campaigning in Old Mkushi, Mr Sata told the people of the area, which he would later declare Luano District, that once elected he would take economic development closer to the people by creating more districts.
By the time of his death, Luano and 31 other areas were being transformed into fully-fledged districts.
In 2008 I covered him during his campaigns for the presidential bye elections of that year in Mkushi and Kapiri Mposhi, where he told the people his government would recapitalise the TAZARA and Zambia Railway Limited (ZRL) networks.
The ZRL network is being turned round while for TAZARA, it was just a matter of time.
On-going projects, including the imminent reopening of Kabwe's Mulungushi Textiles sounded like mere fantasy some four years ago but now they are a reality.
In all these projects, Mr Sata's major aim seemed to have been the creation of jobs while ensuring economic sustainability.
He seemed to have understood that sustainable jobs could only be attained once the economy was buoyant and shunned quick-fix job creation policies.
In areas like banking, his main objective seemed to have been to ensure the people of Zambia fully benefited from the operations.
As I wrote in September 2013 in a tribute towards the Patriotic Front (PF)'s two years in government, the Central Bank seemed to have become a critical driver of change and recorded undeniably more innovations than any other government wing.
By December 2011, the BoZ had revised the minimum statutory capital requirement from K12 million or US$2.3 million to about K104 million for local commercial banks and to about K520 million or $100 million for foreign banks.
The reserve ratios for both local and foreign currency deposits were reduced to free more funds to the banks for onward lending.
It introduced the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) for all commercial banks to reduce on the period of encashment.
Mr Sata's main headache in this sector was the sky-rocketing interest rates and the access to the finances by Zambians with no collateral security.
We, therefore, saw government's reduction of the corporate tax for the commercial banks from 40 per cent to 35 per cent, provided a K65-million relief to banks under the 2012 National Budget.
This was in the hope that banks too would pass that to the borrowers through reduced lending rates.
The BoZ remained systematic on the matter and introduced the Policy Rate in March 2012 which helped to cap the lending rate.
At first, the BoZ policy rate was vague as its effect on the market could not be quantified leaving everyone confounded as to its importance.
But soon, the scenario was to change with the use of the policy rate to cap the lending interest rates being charged by the banks, making borrowing more affordable, but with room for improvement.
Later, a similar move was made on non-bank financial institutions on January 3, 2013, prompted by the extortionate interest rates some institutions had continued to charge their customers.
In all these measures, the government wanted to ensure that splendid economic indicators for the country have a bearing on the living standards of the people.
Previously, these indicators were mere statistics and somewhat contradictory to the standard of living for the people who became poorer amid splendid statistics.
The situation is now different because of the policy measures by the government under Mr Sata who, apart from having been a shrewd politician, proved to have been an insightful economic expert.
For comment, call: 0955431442, 0977246099 or email: jmuyanwa@gmail.com.
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