Guide - Industrial Development
Industrial Development
BY FAR the greater part of Northern Rhodesia's cash economy depends on the mining industry and in particular the production of copper. Minerals account for over 90 per cent. of the country's exports and the industry is the principal source of employment for both Europeans and Africans. Moreover, European farming and forest exploitation depend mainly on the mining industry as a market for their products. Strenuous efforts, however, have been made in post-war years to build up a more balanced economy with the result that there has been a marked expansion
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of industrial and commercial activity. At present the manufacturing industry in the Territory is still on a small scale and is directed towards the local market. Most of the factories are concentrated at Ndola, on the edge of the Copperbelt, and there are other manufacturing concerns in Broken Hill, Lusaka and Livingstone. The principal manufactured products are cement, sawn timber, furniture, plywood, veneers, bricks, oxygen and acetylene, ferroconcrete pipes, soap, mineral waters, clothing and various minor articles. The number of manufacturing enterprises in operation at the end of 1951 was 198 and they covered an ever-widening field of activities. Among new industries already established are a large cement factory near Lusaka, a modern brewery at Ndola, a factory to manufacture steel window and door frames at Lusaka, iron foundries at Ndola and Livingstone, brickfields and joinery works at Kitwe, and a blanket-making factory at Livingstone. There are great potentialities for business expansion in this rapidly developing country where valuable opportunities exist for both large and small enterprises. With its external trade exceeding £100,000,000 and a buoyant revenue, Northern Rhodesia offers a firmly established future for industrial development and commercial enterprise. It is the policy of the Government to give every possible assistance to those who wish to establish new industries in the Territory. An Industrial Loans Board has been established with public funds available for loans to industry. During its first year loans totalling £117,500 were approved and this sum was widely spread over such projects as brickworks, clothing factories, dry cleaners, electrical and mechanical engineers, engineering works and foundries, hardboard factories, joinery works, quarries, steel window and engineering factories, tile factories and upholsterers.
Plans for considerable extension of mining activities are in hand, progress is being made with a scheme to provide hydroelectric power from the Kafue River, and communications are being improved. The completion of these development schemes will afford a tremendous impetus to the expansion of a country which has immense economic potential. There is little doubt that in the course of the next few years Northern Rhodesia will develop into a prosperous and advanced modern industrial country of great importance.
LUSAKA : Capital of Northern Rhodesia—Aerial View
