GOVERNMENT is expected to issue a US$500 million sovereign bond in the first half of this year. The bond, which will enable Government undertake infrastructure development projects, comes in the wake of the country’s B+ credit rating by Standards & Poor and Fitch last year.
Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba said Government is currently working on modalities of issuing the US$500 million bond and is expected to fanalise the process within the first quarter of this year.
Mr Yamba said Government is engaging with local and international financial institutions and international finance advisors on how best the bond will be issued.
“Government wants to take every precaution to ensure that we obtain funds at a fair price. In this regard, preparations are underway and we are moving programmatically and are actively consulting experts from various organisations on how best to undertake the process,” he said.
Mr Yamba said this in an interview in Lusaka on Friday.
He said Government has so far held discussions with local commercial banks, including Zanaco, Citibank, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
Mr Yamba said he is optimistic that the bond will be issued as soon as the process is finalised.
Government announced that it will this year a issue 10-year bond, saying the issuance of the bond will establish a pricing benchmark for future bond issuance by both the private and public sector.
It will further enhance the country’s visibility as a favourable investment destination.
Meanwhile, ZAMBIA has recorded a reduction of exports of copper to about 790,000 metric tonnes in the first 11 months of 2011 from 820,000 metric tonnes in 2010.
Almost all the country’s copper production was exported in 2011 as well as 2010.
According to the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) latest fortnightly report, the weekly average copper price on the London Stock Exchange (LsE) decreased by 2.82 percent to US$346.00 per pound during the fortnight ending November 18, 2011 from US$356.05 per pound recorded during the previous fortnight.
“Last year, Zambia exported 797,201 metric tonnes of copper as at November 2011 compared to 829,726 metric tonnes as at December 2010,” BoZ says.
The data indicates that nearly half of all copper produced is used in the electronics industry, from computer chips and mobile fibre optic cable.
Zambia is internationally-recognised as a major producer of copper and cobalt. Zambia is ranked as the world’s seventh largest producer of copper, generating 3.3 percent of the western world’s production, and world’s second largest producer of cobalt at 19.7 percent.
The central bank has noted the higher volumes of copper shipments as well as the obtaining international commodity prices for copper.
For the past sixty years the Zambian economy has been heavily reliant on the mining of copper and cobalt despite the positive steps taken to diversity the industrial and manufacturing base.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
No, they have incread this to $700 m. The extra $200 m has already been earmarked for ‘more money in your pocket’ projects, in other words payments to relatives in commission of enquiries.
Bonds just increase corruption in Africa. They get this money and then they share projects through friends and relatives. Guess who pays the interest rate of this bond? ( OVER $50 MILLION IN INTEREST ONLY), the Zambian worker. You can get Bonds, but there is need for more accountability by the Government.
The mentality of these governments does not stop to amaze me. One would wonder that the government would build alot of good infrastructure like roads, railways, hospitals, schools, improve the health care system, turn around a dilapidated education system, introduce programs that will create jobs or revive the manufacturing industry etc. But the thinking of these politicians is so shallow that they think about building a Shopping Center. Africa twafweni
I don’t know much about economics, but I know enough to understand the need to invest borrowed money where it will yield quick returns. Zambiano should desist criticising just for the sake of it. Zambians are awakening to who cares for them and who just wants to talk without demonstrating their solutions to challeges. Please don’t insult people’s intelligence. Show us what you have done before you start throwing spanners into other people’s good intentions. A closed mouth can sometrimes show more intelligence than one yapping just for the sake of being heard. Seize an opportunity to be constructive when you get it. To group all politicians under some demeaning umbrella is not one way of doing that.
the bond scares me … under Musokotwane and Mutati I trusted its safety, but under Sata (one man ship) I have concerns
Who will be interested when the next fool will just wake up and reverse the issue!
These are all fruits of the economic policies of the MMD. I hope our current government will build on this and in 2016 hand over a stronger foundation to us….