Education and Poverty

Some few days ago, I wrote an e-mail to an old colleague I once worked with in the Mines to pass my regards.

On reply , he informed me that one of the electricians at one of the Mines I used to work at, sustained serious burns in an electrical accident. This was some two weeks ago.

I replied that I was not aware about it.

He wondered why none of my former co-workers and subordinates had informed me about it.

I told him that human behaviour is such that once one is out of sight they also get out of the mind of others.

He replied that such a serious incident should have been reported to me. I left the Mine some ten months ago.

I jokingly told him that maybe it was due to their lack of "Lorex" !

"Lorex" is the acronym for local medium exchange of cash or the "Kwacha". This is the unlike "Forex" which is the overseas medium exchange of cash or being the US dollar and others.

To some people, even sending an SMS, which costs only K250, is like having a tooth extraction !

A recent observation by the "Family Financial Intelligence " guru on Facebook, says that 80% of Zambians are literate. This means that our educational attainment, as a nation,is quite impressive.

However, one wonders why some 86% of the population is poor.

The unemployed level in Zambia is over 50% .

Those in formal employment, are paid so that they are entirely depended on their employers for survival.

Take away their salaries, they soon become destitute. It is more like a garden plant which soon withers when the irrigation water is cut off !

The reason for this poverty is not due to lack of money but lack of financial education.

When I was working as a Plant Engineer in the Mines, within a time frame of five years, I came across some thirty emerging companies which won contract work from the Mines.

The average contract price was $20,000 with some contracts going as high as $400,000.

Assuming a markup of 20%, these companies made between $4,000 and $80,000 nett profit from the contracts.

What surprised me was that out of all these companies, only six were still operating at the end of that period. The majority had gone under due various reasons.

My observation was that once the money was paid, the owners of some of the companies went into a frenzy of uncontrolled expenditure.

There is this young director of a company which had just been paid some good money.

He used to drive a Toyota Corolla for about three years as he was establishing his company.

One weekend, I found him in town. He was parking a Mitsubishi Pajero besides my fifteen-year old Toyota 2.4D Hilux.

I have been driving the Hilux vehicle for all those years because I have been maintaining it. After having done some 140,000 kilometers since I bought it, it is still in a very good mechanical condition.

Knowing that his father was a businessman for many years, I presumed that the Pajero belonged to his father and so I paid no particular attention to it.

Since he realised that I was not showing any signs of being impressed by his latest acquisition, he boastfully told me that he had just bought the Pajero.

When I asked him what had happened to his Corolla ? he told me that he has given it away to one of his younger siblings.

I had no choice but to "congratulate" him, as he had expected me to do.

He told me that he used to feel very inferior when he came for important meetings with senior Mine officials.

He told me that it was not proper for a Managing Director to drive what he referred to as a "Ka-jilijili" (Corolla), whilst other Directors were driving "good" vehicles!

I am sure he was also telling me that it was not proper for a Plant Engineer to drive a fifteen-year old Hilux!

I really had sympathy for him because I knew that his company would soon kiss dust as has happened to others I have witnessed doing likewise.

The young man, due his lack of financial education, did not see it fit to reinvest the profit he got into expanding his company. Instead, he shrunk its capacity by purchasing an expensive vehicle, which he could not maintain for too long.

Why should one's status be determined by the type and class of a vehicle one is driving ?

It reminds me of one my favourite British comedies called "Keeping Up Appearances".

The hapless husband of Mrs. Buckett was, on many occasions, forced to show the outside world that the couple belonged to the British aristocracy. This was far from the truth !