Zambia's economy experienced periods of prosperity and decline following independence in 1964. In the early post-independence years, high copper prices supported economic growth. However, the nationalization of copper mines in the 1970s and rising oil prices hurt the economy. Economic reforms in the 1990s promoted privatization and entrepreneurship, boosting growth. While recent governments have invested in infrastructure, debt and the COVID-19 pandemic have posed challenges in recent years.

2.  Before 1964 the territory of Zambia was called northern Rhodesia from
1911-1963, it was then renamed Zambia after gaining it's independence
in 1964 from the British rulers, the name Zambia came from the
Zambezi river which means the Grand River. The following writing will
talk about the economic situation in Zambia during the pre-
independence era, after independence and finally after 1991 as well as
the economic results of these time periods. .
 Prior to gaining independence in 1964, Zambia had a very small number
of indigenous businessmen. By the time of Independence, Zambia did
not have businessmen and women who were experienced in managing
complex businesses. Zambian business started growing when the cash
economy became the standard for business transactions. Zambia gained
its independence with a less educated workforce, ill-equipped to
administer the economy. Zambia was also a member of the frontline
states; this meant that a lot of resources were used to help in the
liberation of its neighbors. In the years after independence, the copper
price was fetching a high price on the international market and the oil
price was favorable (Chimpungu 1992).

3.  After attaining independence in 1964, Zambia was among the
most prosperous nations in Africa. With a rich endowment of
arable land, water and mineral resources, it held great potential
for sustainable development and improving the living standards
of all Zambians. The new government of the United National
Independence Party (UNIP) led by President Kenneth Kaunda
inherited a country with inadequate infrastructure and less
skilled human capital. Andrew Sardanis mentioned that at
independence Zambia only had one black engineer, three black
doctors and three black lawyers and 90 other black university
graduates, working mainly as teachers and senior civil servants
(Sardinis, 2014).
 The wealth and the economy of the nation was in the hands of
foreigners, as well as the skills. The black Zambians had no
experience in governance such that when the British civil
servants started departing as their contracts with the colonial
Office expired, many services started coming apart. Apart from
that, the ordinary Zambian citizen had no formal education and
access to the market, this limited them to substantive farming
and transactions of easily sourced goods. Entrepreneurship was
in its infancy. Initially, the government followed a liberal
political and economic policy like the first national plan of 1966
-1971 that focused on the provision of infrastructure, investment
in manufacturing and services to the majority of people
especially in towns along the line rail (Britannica, 2020).

4. 1. This plan proved to be successful in that majority of Zambians got
employed in these new industries and the buying power of the people
increased, small businesses began to mushroom across towns and cities.
Demand for foreign goods necessitated cross-border trade among the
locals with foreign countries even though majority of the neighbor states
where not yet independent. The policies that came after the first
National Development plan did not promote entrepreneurship and were
not as effective as the first one.
2. In 1972, there was a major switch in the structure of the country’s
economy to a more restrictive policy environment with the Mulungushi
Reforms of April 1968. The government declared intention to become the
majority shareholders in a number of key foreign-owned firms, this was
to be controlled by the Industrial Development Corporation (INDECO).
The government acquired majority shareholding in two foreign mining
corporations, the Anglo American Corporation and 4the Rhodesia
Selection Trust which became the Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines
and Roan Consolidated Mines, respectively.

5.  Government control extended to insurance companies and building societies,
these where placed in a newly established parastatal body called FINDECO.
The banks resisted this take over and succeeded. Several Parastatal bodies
where merged to form the Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation
(ZIMCO), this became one of the largest companies in sub-Saharan Africa.
This process of taking over key corporations and merging them into state
controlled parastatals was called Zambianisation. The government imposed
high tariffs for protection. The buying and selling of goods became much
controlled. Consumables became heavily subsidized, prices were controlled
and agriculture inputs and credit became the responsibility of the
government. All these changes were detrimental to the growth of
entrepreneurship in Zambia.
 Having a controlled price environment affected business negatively, the
creative aspects of doing business was at its lowest. The majority of the
people followed the path of seeking formal employment in government-
owned institutions. It was lucrative to work in the government because of the
stable economy which was mainly affected by the booming copper industry.
In 1973, the management contracts that were agreed upon to continue with
the smooth running of the mines by Anglo American and the Rhodesia
Selection Trust came to an end. The policy to nationalize the mines was not
timed very well. In the period after 1973, there was a massive increase in oil
price which greatly increased the cost of importations coupled with the failing
copper prices in 1975 and also political turmoil in neighboring countries.

6.  Initially, the government thought the falling copper price was
temporal, with that the government anticipated arise in price,
hence, borrowed excessively to sustain the economy. There was
little hope of putting. The Third national development plan of
1978 to 1983 into practice (Britannica, 2020).
 By the early1980s, it became clear that the reforms which started
in 1968 had failed. The reforms lacked diversification of the
economy from copper dependence to agriculture and
entrepreneurship. From1983 to 1985, the government attempted
an IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that
came with tough conditions such that it was abandoned in May
1987 due to food riots in the major cities. The government
introduced a new program that re-imposed the controls of
the1970s to replace SAP. Despite this, the economy continued to
decline, more people lost their Jobs, poverty levels kept on rising
and the national debt increased to $7.1 billion by 1991
(Henriot,2020).

7. • In October 1991, the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) was
elected by the Zambian people. This was the resultant of the discontent
that the people had with the performance of their forms of the previous
government. The new government began to push liberal policies with the
support of the IMF and the World Bank SAP, with the hope of having an
efficient private sector to lead the economy. This was the beginning of the
massive expansion of entrepreneurship in Zambia.
• The role of the state remained in creating an enabling environment for the
private sector to thrive. There was massive liberalization of trade,
exchange rates, and interest rates, subsidies removed and most of the
parastatal companies were privatized.
• The market became an ideal environment for entrepreneurship to flourish,
demand, and supply would determine the price of goods and Services.
Apart from that, the government had to reduce the civil service workforce
to the right size. Those that got retrenched were given some money that
they used to start up Small and Medium Enterprise. Ordinary Zambians
started using their creative abilities to buy goods and resale for a profit.
The Zambian dream was now pushed into the hands of the citizens, a new
dawn of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship tendency had come alive.

8.  In September 2011, there was a change of government administration
from the Movement for Multiparty Democracy to the Patriotic Front
Government. The new administration revised the Sixth National
Development Plan OF 2011 TO 2015 to align it with their manifesto
and policies. The revised plan was primarily an investment plan that
focused on capital investment areas with a bias to rural development
and job creation. The government wanted this development to be
driven by the private sector such as Tourism, Manufacturing, and
Mining. In addition to this, new policies were put in place for the
sector to thrive. The strategic focus was to create jobs, rural
development, growth that encompasses all citizens while investing in
human development to take care of the macro-economic
fundamentals (Ministry of Finance, 2014).
 The government created and implemented monetary and financial
sector polices that helped to maintain price and financial stability.
There was a positive growth in the private sector through small and
medium scale enterprise, more businesses opened up. The cost of
borrowing was favorable and there was enough money in circulation.
Entrepreneurship growth was at its pick, all sectors had the private
companies operating, and the market attracted foreign investments.

9.  The capital base of banking and insurance system was strengthened and
the government promoted the corporate debt market in order to expand
access to credit for SMEs (Ministry of Finance, 2014).
 The government accelerated growth and diversification by increasing
private investments through encouraging the foreign direct investment
(FDI). The country had a low level of domestic savings which limited access
to credit for SMEs. The foreign direct investments filled in the gap and
positively affected the entrepreneurship growth in Zambia.
 The development of Multi-Facility Economic Zones and industrial Parks
that have been created in Lusaka and on the Copperbelt offered
producers an enabling and competitive environment. The zones have
created the link in the economy for production of high value goods some
of which are being exported to neighboring countries. Then came the
Seventh National Development Plan of 2017 to 2021 which aimed at
creating a more conducive environment so that Zambia can become a
middle income country that offers decent employment opportunities for
all Zambians of different educational and skill background in all industries.
This is planned to be achieved by harnessing opportunities for economic
diversification and growth (Ministry of National Development Planning,
2017).

10.  Apart from government organisations, other organisations and
government agencies have setup programs to promote
entrepreneurship in Zambia one example is the United States Embassy
that provides support to Zambian entrepreneurs through its program
and events that are aimed at promoting skill development, mentorship,
business to business connections and partnerships, and assist access to
opportunities, resources and networks (U.S. Embassy in Zambia, 2020).
 Having gained independence in 1964 and now ranking as a lower
middle-income country even though the economy was highly rated at
independence, Zambia has seen entrepreneurship growth in all sectors.
The history and economic policies of the past had a bearing on
entrepreneurship growth in the country. Political factors coupled with
social factors have shaped the business landscape of Zambia. The
stages of economic changes from independence to 1991 were not
favorable with entrepreneurship growth. However, the transformation
came in when there was the liberalization of the economy after the re-
introduction of multiparty politics in Zambia.

11.  The following are the economic results of the above time periods. To begin with,
the most important achievement of the pre independence period was economic
development in the early 1920s was the discovery of vast deposits of copper,
mostly well below the levels reached by existing mines. After a short setback in
the early 1930s as result of a falloff in the demand for copper in the great
depression, mining became profitable again. Financial significance of the copper
industry for northern Rhodesia was economic development. The rapid industrial
extension had profound social and political effects. Most rural areas suffered
impoverishment because there were no able bodies to work in the mine.
Secondly, during Kaunda’s presidency the economic results were as follows.
 In the early 1970 Zambia’s economic fortune took pictures a tune to the worse.
Copper continued to provide the great bulk of export earnings, but prices
fluctuated erratically and suffered prolonged fall in 1975. In this period the
government, committed to high spending, both in public and private reacted by
borrowing heavily abroad and drawing on reserves. Investment declined, as did
the efficiency of the transport network.

12.  The results of the economy during chiluba’s presidency. Having inherited a
trabled economy, chiluba worked with the Bretton woods institution to
establish free mark economy. Chiluba’s administration work to bring about
economic reform, but ironically economic progress was limited due to the
wide spread of corruption that became a problem under his rule. The results
was a general raise in unemployment and poverty, through the inequality
decline in the same period.
 The economy remained heavily dependent on the copper industry; the
economy achievement this period was uneven. Efforts at attracting foreign
donor funds were hampered by the failure to deal firmerly with the state
corruption. Zambia was highly in debted poor country and became eligible for
a two-third reduction in debt if it is implemented a poverty reduction
strutage.

13.  Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the
corruption situation in Zambia. Consistent economic growth was
recorded overaging 4.9%, during mwanawasa’s reign,
microeconomic stability was strengthened with inflation falling to
single digit level and budget management was also improved.
 President L.P Mwanawasa also succeeded in obtaining substantial
debt relief through the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and the
multilateral debt relief initiative, thereby relieving the country of the
highly previously high debt burden and the GDP reached 8.0%.

14.  During president Rupiah B. Banda’s three year reign he
demonstrated robust economic growth reaching the highest peak
during the period and his 10% growth in 2010 was as high as
president Kaunda’s in 1972.
 economy experienced growth during Sata’s presidency, there was
increasing discontent among the population over his failure to
deliver on some of his election promises, such as reducing
unemployment, improving socio economic policy, and championing
democratic governance

15.  Lungu’s administration was lauded for the number of economic
development in form of infrastructure projects it had completed,
which included improving existing roads as well as building new
ones, constructing many new schools, increasing the country’s
power-generating capacity, refurbishing international airports, and
constructing new health care facilities as well as upgrading existing
structures.
 In contrast to this progress, however, the country experienced a
worsening economy, the fallout of which was compounded by the
COVID-19 global pandemic beginning in 2020.

16. Zambia's economy started getting better after 2020 when
we had an experience of the covid 19 uncertainty which
affected global economies, some measures have been put
in place to sustain the economy, eg when a vaccine is
given to an individual health personnel say they put an in
active bacteria/virus to awaken the immune system so
that when an active one come its fought using the tactics
it used. This regard we can conclude by saying Zambia's
economy is improving by diversifying into different
income generating activities.