The Zambian Ministry of Finance and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have recently signed a NOK 38 million (USD 4.6 million) financing agreement to implement the Mineral Value Chain Monitoring Project (MVCMP) to help to boost tax revenues from Zambia’s mining sector.
The project is hosted by the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and is supported by the Statistics Norway technical assistance and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) with know-how on data compilation.
Part of the fund granted by the Norwegian Government will be used to strengthen further the institutional cooperation between ZRA and Statistics Norway that started in 2014 and that has since allowed ZRA to collect additional tax revenues worth of ZMK 143 million, approximately USD 20.4 million.
The project’s primary task is to design and develop a multi-purpose and multi-stakeholder scheme for monitoring the flow of Zambia’s mineral resources throughout the value chain.
It will be supported by providing accurate and reliable data and information on the mining sector that is relevant for effective policymaking.
In addition to improve the tax administration and mining sector oversight, the project is meant to surveil the production, costs, sales and revenues of mineral produced in the country, centralize reporting obligations by mining companies and enhance ZRA to verify accuracy of mining tax returns.
The Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia Arve Ofstad said after the agreement’s signing that Norway’s experience in monitoring its oil industry, will play an important role for Zambia which seeks a better surveıllance of the mining sector.
Zambian Secretary to Treasury Fredson Yamba, explained that for the Government the MVCMP is the beginning of a series of appropriate measures aimed at ensuring that Zambians receive a fair share of the proceeds from natural resources thanks to better monitoring activities.
According to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway provides the major funding for Zambia’s program for better monitoring of its production, processing and exports of copper and other minerals.
