Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Friday.

-- Zambian President Edgar Lungu said the level of destruction caused by army worms that invade maize fields was alarming hence government's decision to intervene and help the farmers.

Army worms have invaded maize fields in six of the country's 10 provinces, destroying large swathes of fields. (Times of Zambia)

-- The Zambian government has launched a loan scheme aimed at economically empowering public service workers by giving them agricultural equipment.

Acting Secretary to the Treasury Pamela Kabamba said the decision follows President Edgar Lungu's pronouncement that public workers should participate in the diversification of the economy by owning small piece of land for agricultural purposes.

The scheme will allow the public workers to acquire agriculture equipment for land preparation, irrigation and food processing and is open to all public service workers. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- The Zambian government's decision to increase excise duty on airtime for mobile phone services is a sad development and totally unjustified, a former minister of communication has said.

In his 2017 budget, Minister of Finance Felix Mutati increased excise duty on airtime to 17.5 percent from 15 percent which came into effect on January 1, 2017.

But Andrew Kashita, who served as communications minister in late President Fredrick Chiluba's government in the 1990s, said there was no justification for the tariff hike on airtime and data services given the deplorable state of service provision imposed on consumers by mobile phone service operators. (The Mast) Endit