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The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) has approved construction of agro processing plants in Kawambwa District of Luapula Province.
The construction of a rice and sunflower cooking oil processing project was approved at the 8th sitting of the Environmental Assessment Committee (EAC) of the Board of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).
Zambia Environmental Management Agency Acting Director General, Maxwell Nkoya, confirmed the decision in a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday.
Nkoya said the construction of a sunflower cooking oil and rice processing project by Agripreneur Foundation Limited will be done at a total cost of over K4.1million.
He said Agripreneur Foundation Limited will produce virgin vegetable oil and processed rice whose raw materials will be purchased from local farmers through the out-grower scheme programme.
“The production capacity for cooking oil is estimated to be at 100,000 liters and 200 tonnes for rice annually. This will contribute to the agro processing and manufacturing sector which is currently contributing above 10% to Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” Nkoya said.
He said during the 8th EAC sitting, the Committee approved a total of 162 projects from the total 189 considered projects.
Nkoya said this was part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process which assists to predict and mitigate possible negative environmental, health and social impacts that can result from the implementation of proposed projects.
“The total investment value for all considered projects is over Two Hundred Million US Dollars (US$ 283,532,028) and is equivalent to over Five Billion Kwacha (K5,658,911,228.00),” he sad.
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