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The World Bank (WB) has approved a $100 million credit to strengthen Zambia’s nature-based economy and increase economic opportunities in emerging tourism destinations in the country, authorities say.
According to a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, Minister of Tourism Rodney Sikumba, who has expressed gratitude to the Board of Directors of the World Bank said this follows after successful negotiations.
Sikumba said this will be taken to Tourism Development Areas (TDA) such as Liuwa Plains National Park, Source of the Zambezi, and Kasaba Bay.
He said the Ministry is focused on realizing the economic status of the tourism industry and will utilize the $100million in areas that will improve the investment climate and attract more private sector investors to move the tourism Industry to levels never seen before.
“After the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the destination Zambia is recovering and rebounding and therefore the $100million will be a boost to deal with basic infrastructure development and connectivity of the TDAs’ earmarked for Development and Tourism product enhancement,” Sikumba said.
He said the Great-Transformation Development Project (TDP) is aligned with national priorities in the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) and Vision 2030 that underscores the government’s commitment to unlock the tourism sector for economic transformation and job creation.
“The project therefore, supports the government’s strategic vision of increasing tourist numbers both international and domestic, improving accessibility, increasing the length of stay for tourists, diversifying the tourism product offerings, and increasing the tourism sector’s contribution to the economic development of the country by providing support to effective links between TDAs and circuits,” Sikumba said.
He said the project also aligns with the government’s high-level priorities on climate change and those of the World Bank as enshrined in the Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan (2016) and it’s Next Generation Africa Climate Change Business Plan.
Sikumba said the project approach to implementation at the landscape level is consistent with Zambia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“The NDC promotes a landscape approach to enhance synergies between adaptation and mitigation actions,” he said.
Sikumba said the main beneficiaries of the Green, Resilient and Transformational Tourism Development Project are local communities, nature-based community enterprises, and private sector entities within the emerging tourism destination.
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