Youth and Sport Minister Elvis Nkandu has implored Youths that will benefit from the government sponsored Oil tanker Youth Empowerment Scheme to incubate themselves with established Oil Marketing companies in order to learn the art of Oil business.
And Kinglong Company General Manager Wu Ming says his company that has been in the country for over two decades will soon sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at training and capacitating 50 Zambian Youths with engineering skills to manage the Oil tankers.
Minister Nkandu who was in the company of his Permanent Secretary Chileshe Kangwa during the inspection of the acquired trucks at Higer premises said it would be practically impossible for the Youths without any experience in the oil business to effectively manage the tanker trucks hence the need to incubate with existing OMCs.
Mr. Nkandu told the media after conducting a tour and inspection of the fleet that the trucks will be fairly distributed to youths across the country including areas off the line of railway.
He further revealed that government has started recovering amounts from the previous fleet of 50 distributed under the PF regime citing the recent payment of K9million by Kapekisa Oil marketing company which incubated 30 tanker trucks and another K1,5 million from Mount Meru which got 18 trucks.
The Minister added that his ministry which is expected to distribute the trucks by January 2022 is happy to note that the supplier Kinglong has pledged to ensure that Zambian Youths were attached to its after service workshop in order to acquire necessary skills in the maintenance of the trucks with a Chinese Engineer already on site to impart the knowledge.
He has since urged Youths across the country to form Co-operatives in order to benefit from the initiative aimed at reducing the levels of unemployment among Youths in the country.
And Kinglong General Manager Wu Ming says his company which is one of the largest truck and bus manufacturer in China will use the soon to be signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Youth and Sport on skills development as a bedrock for its relationship with Zambia.
Mr. Ming says his company which has been in the country for over 20 years will provide after care services through its well equipped workshop and technical staff to ensure that the project meets its desired goals.
He thanked the Minister and his Staff for their warm relations and pledged to continue working with the new dawn government in Youth Empowerment programs.