Professor Chinsembu Explains Why Free Education is Just the Beginning and Why Higher Education Must Be at the Centre of Zambia’s Economic Future
The Director-General of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Professor Kazhila C. Chinsembu, has said that Zambia’s ambition to double its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) cannot be achieved without placing higher education at the heart of national development, adding that the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s provision of free education is a deliberate investment in that vision, not a social welfare gesture.
Professor Chinsembu made the remarks on Friday, 22nd May, 2026, during a one-hour live interview on Choma Maanu Radio Station 95.1FM as part of his ongoing stakeholder engagement tour of Southern Province. The visit falls under Strategic Objective No. 2 of HEA’s Strategic Plan 2022–2026, which positions stakeholder engagement not as a public relations exercise but as a core function of the Authority’s mandate to coordinate, regulate, supervise and monitor standards of higher education across Zambia.
“The starting point for building a resilient economy, the starting point for doubling our GDP, the starting point for transformation of our economy should and must be higher education,” Professor Chinsembu said, continuing, “This is why the government is providing free education, because education is the starting point.”
The Director-General was unambiguous about the reasoning, stating that higher education is the only pipeline through which Zambia produces the engineers, doctors, teachers, scientists, accountants, ICT specialists, agricultural experts and entrepreneurs that a growing economy demands.
“We cannot develop as a country if we don’t have these experts,” he said, adding, “We need competent workers in industry, we need workers that are productive, and we need to push economic growth.”
Professor Chinsembu’s message reframes free education as an economic strategy, one whose returns depend entirely on whether Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are producing graduates with the right competencies. That, he argued, is where the HEA’s role becomes decisive.
The Authority, he explained, is actively pushing HEIs to shift from theory-heavy curricula toward competence-based programmes designed to produce graduates who can build enterprises, commercialise knowledge and create employment, not merely seek it.
For HEA, the Choma engagement is part of a deliberate pattern by the Director-General of stakeholder engagements across provinces that are designed to carry the Authority’s message directly to communities, parents, students and institutions, in order to listen to what is happening on the ground. It is impact, not itinerary, that the Authority measures.
Listen to Professor Chinsembu’s full 1 hour interview on Choma Maanu Radio Station 95.1FM here: https://youtu.be/GR7mABU7UC8
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