CEC Boldly Sets The Stage For The Next 25 Years Of Sustainable Wealth Creation
“We’ve created something that is a force for good.”
Reflecting on the Company’s silver jubilee, Managing Director, Owen Silavwe, has described CEC’s performance in the last 25 years following privatization as very successful, responsible and transparent; and that all the employees who have made huge contributions to the success that CEC has found should be proud.
“We’ve created something that is a force for good, in terms of creating wealth for our investors, for our local communities and for Zambia. When I look at the financial performance of the business, I’m quite happy to see the improvements that we’ve made over the period. I’m quite happy to also see the contributions we’ve made to the local communities because you can only make those contributions if you find success and, therefore, you share some of that success.”
“We are quite proud that we continue to create a story that a lot of Zambians have come to love and have been able to associate themselves with whether though investment or sport. We’ve been able to create partnerships with local communities and the government in the areas where we operate, including in building infrastructure such as putting up bridges where there were none, lighting streets and building hospitals and schools. These are values that are quite important, and as the business grows, we should be able to do more and more in these areas,” he pledged.
Silavwe sees CEC’s journey into the future as one of continuing hard work and success.
“The CEC journey is not ending today. We are becoming bold as we look at the future. We plan on taking on very, very bold goals. Today, we are a Company that makes a net profit of between US$ 50 – 60 million. Over the next five years, our target is to try and grow that to US$ 100 million, for example. That will not be an easy feat to achieve, and I invite all the employees in CEC to join me on that journey to grow CEC’s profitability from where we are today to almost doubling it over the next five years.”
He said there was a collective belief that the stage is set for the business to drive that kind of growth from different perspectives, including cultural, technological and financial resourcing.
“We think the business is just at the right point where it should be able to drive that sort of growth over the next five years or so.”
