Nalumango visits Luapula chiefdom as government reaffirms rural development pledge

Vice President Mutale Nalumango has reiterated the government's commitment to equitable development across Zambia's chiefdoms, following a courtesy call on Chief Sokontwe of the Ushi-speaking people in Milenge District, Luapula Province.

Chief Sokontwe welcomed the visit and acknowledged the tangible impact of increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocations in the area. The CDF, established in 1995, was significantly scaled up in 2022 from K1.6 million to K25.7 million per constituency, a near-sixteenfold increase that has materially changed the landscape of rural service delivery.

Milenge, a remote district bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo, has channelled CDF resources into health posts, classroom blocks, and cooperative empowerment grants. In 2024 alone, over K2.3 million in empowerment grants were disbursed to 178 cooperatives and community groups across the district's fifteen wards, with record CDF loans exceeding K3.7 million also deployed to fund local businesses and cooperatives for the first time since independence.

For communities long accustomed to being peripheral to national development, the Vice President's visit and the CDF's expanding reach represent something more than infrastructure. They signal that remote, traditionally underserved chiefdoms are increasingly visible to the government in Lusaka.