Zambia, one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most politically stable states, has an underdeveloped tourism market, home to wild elephants, lush safari parks and the world’s biggest series of waterfalls – the Mosi-oa-Tunya, or “the smoke that thunders”, which was found by Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1855 and renamed after Britain’s Queen Victoria.

With these known treasures, the copper-rich country has long proved prosperous for foreign investors seeking to build hotels for the country’s budding tourism industry. But local investors are now decrying government efforts to support outside investment and let local investors struggle.

“We have no credit facilities to support our ideas. (Tourism) is actually a very risky business to put in your own money and hope for the best of returns. Already it’s not a guaranteed market. There are already established player in the system,” Sinya Mbale who ones a lodge in the capital Lusaka told CCTV Africa.

“If local entrepreneur had access to credit and reasonable credit rates it will help them to build,” he added.