Agro Dealers To Protest At State House

Agro dealers are planning to protest at State House next Friday over outstanding government debts contracted between 2015 to 2019 totalling some K600 million.

A source from the Woodlands police station has said the dealers notified police of their intention to protest last week.

In particular, some dealers in Eastern Province are angry that the government has paid new dealers involved in Direct Input Supply (DIS) over K700 million while existing debts continue to be ignored. 

The protestors allege that the DIS programmes will benefit Minister of Presidential Affairs Freedom Sikazwe and Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo especially. 

They claim that Mr Sikazwe has been advising President Lungu to ignore the agro dealers after he bought a fleet of trucks to deliver inputs from DIS dealers.