A few weeks ago, the government announced plans to drastically slash by half, the cost of the recently rolled out 4G LTE that was out of the reach of many. Otherwise, the thousands of miles of the countrywide optic fibre cable infrastructure would not fully serve its intended purpose of bringing fast and affordable connectivity to the population. Similarly, a multi-million dollar soya processing plant in the Eastern Province is facing challenges of not operating to full capacity due to lack of sufficient raw materials. It has caused the factory to work on an on-and-off rhythm and pushed the prices of their end products to unsustainable levels. But like in the previous case of the 4G LTE, possible solutions are being envisaged and one of them being the scrapping of VAT on soya oil and it derivatives, namely soya cakes that serve as animal feed. Talks are ongoing in that area. While it is to be expected for investors to recoup their investments, there is need for stakeholders to come together to make the venture both profitable but also work in the interest of the public. The country has built a healthy investment climate so it would make sound sense if it fully benefited. But it calls for continuous scrutiny of any bottlenecks that might hinder future investments. That is what id has demonstrated in the above cases.
