Zambia's police arrest two former Ministers.

By John Chola Two former Minister in the Rupiah Banda administration have been arrested over bicycles found at their residences. Former Mines Minister Maxwell Mwale was arrested less that 24 hours ago and appeared in court this morning. Police denied him bond but the court granted him a US$6,000 bail. Stumbeko Musokotwane who used to be Finance Minister became the second former top official to be arrested today. Musokotwane was found with 269 bicycles at his house.

The two former Minister, still Members of Parliament, are alleged to have abused public resources to run their political party's expensive campaign during the run up to the September 20, 2011 general elections. Mwale is connected to the disappearance of Gold confiscated from two Zimbabweans and went missing while in custody of the Drug Enforcement Commission. Former Drug Enforcement Commissioner Aaron Zulu was the first to be arrested and detained in connection with the Gold scum. Meanwhile spokesperson of MMD and former Minister in charge of Communication and Transport also responsible for the sale of Zamtel, Dora Siliya, said while they were in support of the fight against corruption the arrest of two former Ministers was improper.

Zamtel sale fraudulent

By John Chola. A committee set up to investigate the controversial sale of Zamtel's 75 per cent shares to LapGreen of Libya by Rupiah Banda's regime has concluded that it the sale was fraudulent. The Committee led by Justice Minister Sebastian Zulu this morning presented its findings to President Michael Sata at state house. The committee said the Cabinet of former President Rupiah Banda sold Zamtel fraudulently. It says the company hired to valuate Zamtel, RP Capital of Cayman Islands, was single sourced and that it did a poor job. The committee found that Zamtel assets were undervalued and lowly priced. Zulu said Zamtel was under valued at 38 Million United States-US Dollars, despite the company having a book value of 81 Million U.S Dollars. President Sata has since directed Mr. Zulu to develop a Cabinet Memorandum to enable cabinet make a final decision on the sale of Zamtel. Zamtel was sold at US$257 million against the possibility to sale the telecom firm at more than US$88 million. President Sata has asked Justice Minister Zulu to raise a Cabinet memo on whether the sale of Zamtel should be reversed or left as it is. When making a submission to the inquiry , former Vice President, Enoch Kavindele described the sale of 75 per cent shares of Zamtel to Lapgreen as ridiculous. Kavindele said the US$257 million paid for Zamtel was a giveaway price. "US$257 million is what MTN paid to get a license in Nigeria and how can you compare a license to a whole company?" Kavindele asked.

Zambia's 2012 national buget

Zambia has unveiled its 2012 national budget amounting to US$ 5 billion (27.6 trillion Kwacha). In the budget the state has increased mineral royalty from 3 per cent to 6 percent. The budget also reduces corporate tax on banks from 40 percent to 35 per cent as banks proposed.

Zambia's Central Bank reduced statutory reserves lending rates from 8% to 5%.

By John Chola - 01/11/2011 Zambia's Central Banker (BoZ) has downed the statutory reserves Ratio from 8% to 5%. This means that the BoZ will release back a total of K700 billion to the Commercial Banks money it held for people who bank with commercial banks. This, according to experts, will result in immediate downward reductions of lending rates by commercial banks. Investrust Bank Plc yesterday decided to reduce its lending rates from 19% to 16% and Finance Bank Zambia Limited has today followed suit and reduced lending rates to a further 15%. The Central Bank PR department told this newswire that the BoZ has taken note wide spread concerns expressed about the high levels of base lending rates in the commercial banks and the consequence adverse effects on the affordability of growth enhancing credit by a number of productive sectors. The core liqud asset ratio has also been slashed from 9% to 6%. "With this reduction the cost of holding these assets will. similarly, be reduced," states a statement signed by Head PR, Kanguya Mayondi. The overnight lending facility has been reduced from 4 per centage points to two percentage points above the interbank rates. Ends