By a Senior Professor, University of Zambia, Wilbroad Mutale.
As Zambia approaches another election cycle, political parties are preparing promises on jobs, roads, health, education, and economic recovery.
Every day, minerals are leaving this country copper, cobalt, gold.
These are valuable resources the whole world needs.
But ask yourself
Who benefits from Zambia’s mineral wealth today, and for generations to come?
Zambia is one of the world’s most resource-endowed countries. We are blessed with vast reserves of copper, cobalt, manganese, gold, and other critical minerals that are increasingly essential to electric vehicles, battery storage, renewable energy systems, and modern industry. The world is entering a new minerals era, and Zambia is well positioned to benefit.
Yet history has shown that mineral abundance alone does not guarantee national prosperity.
For decades, Zambia has exported raw wealth while many citizens continue to face unemployment, weak public services, infrastructure gaps, and recurring debt pressures. Copper prices rise, then fall. Revenues come, then disappear into consumption, inefficiency, or short-term politics. Meanwhile, the minerals themselves are finite.
This must change.
A National Question, Not a Partisan Question
The debate over mineral ownership and mineral benefits should not belong to one party. It should be a national development consensus.
Every serious political party should now commit to establishing a Zambia Sovereign Wealth Fund a professionally governed national fund that converts temporary mineral revenues into long-term national wealth.
In simple terms:
When money comes from minerals, a portion is kept and invested
That money grows over time
The country uses the profits to build the future
Countries around the world have understood this principle.
Norway used oil revenues to build one of the world’s largest public investment funds. Canada is now developing new sovereign investment mechanisms to strengthen strategic growth and future prosperity.
Several Gulf and Asian economies have used resource income to build lasting assets. Botswana, Ghana and Nigeria have similar products.
Why should Zambia remain behind?
What a Zambia Sovereign Wealth Fund Could Do
A properly designed national fund would receive a defined share of:
mineral royalties
windfall taxes during high commodity prices
state mining dividends
strategic concession revenues
selected privatization proceeds
These funds would then be invested transparently and professionally.
The returns not the capital itself could help finance:
modern hospitals,universities and scholarships
pension sustainability
rail and power infrastructure, industrial parks,technology and innovation.
drought and economic shock buffers
In short, Zambia would begin turning non-renewable minerals into renewable prosperity.
Why This Matters Before Elections
Election seasons often focus on immediate needs: fertilizer, cash transfers, salaries, and fuel prices. Those issues matter. But leadership also means planning beyond five-year cycles.
Copper in the ground belongs not only to today’s voters, but also to:
unborn Zambians,future students,future farmers,future entrepreneurs, future workers as well future pensioners.
A party that speaks only of spending today, without saving for tomorrow, is not presenting a complete economic vision.
The Ownership Agenda Zambia Needs
Political parties should compete on who can offer the best mineral ownership strategy. Their manifestos should answer:
How much mineral revenue will be saved annually?
How will leakages and corruption be prevented?
How will citizens track every kwacha deposited and withdrawn?
How will Zambia move from raw exports to value addition?
How will mineral wealth create jobs outside mining towns?
How will future generations benefit?
That is the standard voters should demand.
Governance Is Everything
A sovereign wealth fund must never become a political slush fund.
It should have:
independent professional management
parliamentary oversight
annual international audits
public quarterly reporting
legal withdrawal rules
protection from campaign-era abuse
Without governance, a fund is only a slogan.
With governance, it becomes a nation-building institution.
Beyond Extraction: Towards Economic Sovereignty
The real issue is bigger than mining taxes.
It is about whether Zambia remains a country that extracts and exports raw wealth or becomes a country that accumulates capital, builds industries, and shapes its own destiny.
Minerals should finance transformation, not dependency.
A Message to Political Leaders
As parties finalize their manifestos, I urge them to include a credible mineral wealth agenda anchored around a sovereign fund and citizen ownership model.
This would be one of the most important economic reforms of our generation.
The next election should not only ask:
Who will govern Zambia?
It should also ask:
Who will protect Zambia’s mineral future?
Final Word
Copper can be exhausted.
Cobalt can be depleted.
Political terms come and go.
But if managed wisely, mineral wealth can become schools, hospitals, pensions, industries, and dignity for decades.
Zambia should not just mine resources.
Zambia must use them to build a future that lasts.
