Zambia successfully issues US$1.25 billion Eurobond

1. This is really good news for Zambia. congrats Mr Lungu. We have the campaign funds. Mwapya baisa ba PF.

   • How do you celebrate that PF have campaign funds? This is not party funds but for the citizens. It’s us the common Zambians who will pay this kaloba. For your own information this kaloba will have to be paid not like the HIPC because we are borrowing from the market. I thought lending rates in most developed countries are in the region of 1-4%! I stand to
     corrected

   • @ine wine
     I celebrate because this money is required. As you may also know our lovely president is traveling to bring investors who are the same people to pay this bond.
     Mr Lungu is a very hard working man and his focus is too see Zambia develop and ensure that people like you have meals 3 times a day. So shut the fu!k up.
     Yes this same money will be used to boost our popularity as PF and Zambia will be admired by other countries.

   • Great achievements, Greek bonds @ 11.3% with over 400 Billion of debts and Zambian @ 8.97%.

     Wow, shall we borrow some more and catch Greece and enjoy all the benefits Greek people enjoy?

   • We will use this borrowed money to build roads and claim to be developing the country even if we have no clue how we will pay it back.

     We will use this to our advantage during our PF campaigns

   • @ Cha

     It is great to be admired as the Nation, but to be “admired” for the reason of increasing debit? Are you serious?

   • @cha, you portray Lungu to be some kind of saint as though you don’t know what he did to ensure he comes into power at all costs 6 months ago.

     Ask Miles Sampa

   • Good news for modern man. . . . Now u should win the eRections. more money for roads and bribes.Good luck edga

   • PF is so retrogressive that they celebrate borrowing irresponsibly. What a shame that these people are evening planning to increase their pay because of this borrowed money.

   • MPs have already increased their salaries…meanwhile the docile Zambians are sleeping as usual in Zesco darkness!!

   • Another interpretation of this is that they failed to raise the required 2 billion hence increasing any actual deficit they may have considering they wanted to raise 2 billion from the market. Or maybe it reduces the amount they can spend on corruption…you can look at this anyway. In as far as issuing of bonds is concerned this happens every week in the capital markets. But is it sustainable with inflation at 9.5%??????. GRZ needs to come up with more creative ways of raising revenues. At the end of the day only taxes from our people will develop the country. Simply borrowing for consumption as is clearly the case is not sustainable in the long run. Once interest rates start to creep up GRZ could see themselves defaulting on these expensive loans.

   • “When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds” Will Rogers
     “The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about”
     “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance” Derek Bok
     “The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.”
     “It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.” — Thomas Sowell
     “Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.” — H.L. Mencken
     “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” –…

   • Twalya again. Where’s is Miles Sampa?

   • Zambia is the new Greece. Just wait and see.

2. Progress Mr President
   Congratulations Hon Chikwanda

   • Your Fossil Chikwanda is 75+ years you honestly think he would care about the future…you think he will be there in 2027??

   • This is great indeed. Next trip will be exciting considering the great amount of allowances … wow. VIVA EL. More money in our pocket concept becoming a reality. I told you people that PF government is great; join us and you will not regret. The southerners who are always complaining against PF are welcome.

   • Dinosaur Chikwandasorous Rex (C-Rex) will ensure our children are yoked to debt even after he is extinct. Twice in his life he has dragged this wealthy nation into the ground under UNIP and the current. I think most of these kids blogging celebrating debt were too young to remember what Zambia went through when IMF put the screws on Zambia under Kaunda. Sad thing is that the ones who will feel it the most are the majority poor who dont understand what this means and are already living under a $1 a day. Any way he who refuses to learn from advice must learn from experience. At that point even docility of Zambians will end some people only learn with pain. Carry on cheering

   • @spellcheck…
     ..the guys you are referring to as….’kids celebrating the debt..’..@cha..@aleshaday..@chils etc ..your insinuation is actually to da contrary..read thru their posting over and over.. you will see that they are just teasing the govt….meanwhile what they are saying is a painful truth…you cant separate the govt and the ruling party..whether we like it or not…da ruling party shall always somehow use govt resources on party functions or maneuverers and somehow it seems there is nothing an ordinary..you and I can effectively do to stop that..that’s the painful reality..those in power have the’examples’..’evidence’..of their colleagues who were in the corridors of power now languishing in poverty..they don’t want that to happen to them..10% of da bond is theirs

3. There is no country that does not borrow. Just pray that the funds are properly utilised and accounted for.

   • Wishingful thinking indeed…yes no Country does not borrow but they do not borrow to pay debts, fund budget deficits without tightening their belts and fund infrastructure development that are over inflated and single sourced to minister’s proxy companies.

   • Rodney please. No need to pray, this money is going in the same pit the last 2 eurobonds went too. The fact that the last 2 were not and can not be audited or accounted for tells you what is going to happen. Let me give you a simple example: Someone rapes 2 girls in your neighborhood on 2 separate occassions, and you decide to leave your daughter with him in a lodge and “pray” that he doesn’t rape her. Even in faith use the brain God gave you.

   • Brother you can pray all you like… i guarantee you that ordinary Zambians will not see a ngwee of that money.

   • I totally agree with this view. The US government is probably the biggest borrower
     However let us be responsible in our borrowing

4. When the consultants cracking these deals start smelling rich in the next few years due to commissions gained, we will be the first ones to complain like we are complaining on the beneficiaries of privatization.

5. I think that is a very high rate (9%) to borrow at. We are talking about the open market here where people are desperate to lend you money!! I smell desperation for money by this Government, we will get it at any cost. Why didn’t they just ask for an Interest Loan Free from China?

6. This is money which we could have been raising from our own copper, gold and other precious stones. PF is full of thieves and this money will be used to pay the bloated cabinet and to flush out during elections. Many Zambians will suffer for years. at least I will have my pension from here to enjoy and Zambia’s debt will not affect me much.

   • So just shut up at least you will have your pension from the same Eurobond!

7. In the picture everybody smiling happily,we get some money again,when the hell are you trying to generate your own money???????

   • More loans, more government allowances

8. You people saying we should borrow lack critical analysis. Where do you borrow at 9% in developed countries? When this bond is over subscribed you’re celebrating. It’s a jackpot for them

9. Zambia successfully signs to a new bond of indebtednesss.Greece is earnestly looking for a new partner in economic crisis and Zambia is increasingly fitting the profile.

   • They are long seperated twins bro’ – Samaras had warned Tzipras not to turn Greece into ” a Zambia…” ; when bilateral credit is nowhere to be had !diots borrow at times of low interests, the lender has all the aces and them fools in the pic think they’ve negotiated somefing big- Bwalya ngandu FCOL as negotiater!! Muzakalila nafuti, the cost of borrowing always goes from low to up – dammit !!

10. Kaloba for rubbish cosmetic projects like putting ballast stones on on old sleepers and railway line Of ZRL, funding recurrent expenditure and by -“erections.”

11. PF kaponyas celebrating borrowing, you have failed to generate you own funds and borrowed to levels that took 20yrs to reach, you are a hopeless bunch of corrupt thieves who don’t account for anything.

12. The vultures are now ready to fist on the debt what a joke of a country and suprisingly there are too many dull poeple who are not able to see beyond the nose.God deliver us please

    • Really laughable that these empty tins are celebrating bond interest rates of 9% when others are borrowing at quarter that rate BUT then again this is a govt of kaponya who borrow for today…its really sad when you look at the thieves surrounding the weak lazy bum Edgar, they just send him abroad and they do dealing at home.
      There is nothing tangible to show from the last misused Eurobond.

13. #Patrick, Saka and others, you know PF has many cadres in the West who are not educated to understand economic issues. They don’t even know that a personal loan of $3K can take one some years to repay off. What more with$1.25b which dull PF govt has borrowed at 9%? Chikwanda & Changwa will be gone when future generation shall be brought to their knees if a credible govt does not emerge next year.

14. Our colleagues in Senegal, Kenya and Ghana are borrowing for specific strategically planned 20 year development projects like overhead railways, Bullet trains and billion dollar Business Parks. Meanwhile we are borrowing for UNDER THE GUISE OF “infrastructure development” this may include stalled projects from last budget, budget deficits…this is pure laziness merely borrowing for consumption and at whooping 9% rate and you are smiling like a Cheshire cat…utter folly of the highest order.
    Its no wonder that lazy bum in State House Edgar can carry on flying around and drinking as he has just found money to fund the next Presidential Campaign…surely how can you borrow when you have not accounted for the last eurobond?

    Zambians wake up from your folly and docility!!

15. I was called a pessimist when I warned about this government going on a spending spree like a nation that has just discovered oil. Put lipstick on a pig but it still remains a pig, Zambia is still a poor country and as such we must live within our means. My worry is what happens next year when this money is gone?

16. All the projects will be done and dusted! then we need to borrow to set up industries – industrial zones even with no companies in them just put the facilities.

    Last we start paying debt

17. Prudent use of resources is what should be encouraged. Why do we celebrate indebtedness? If we have failed to raise resources from our own resources, when we had minimal debt after HIPC, what makes you confident we will repay debt in 10 years time? The way we think, absurdity at its best.

    • Prudence is not a word associated with PF and the utterly lazy visionless bum of a Ptesident currently on 2 day holiday with dictator M7 in Kampala.

18. Prudence does not mean you shouldn’t borrow people. Most developed economies have debt check this:*****
    Many of you still leave in the past where you just want Government to provide everything that is why you can’t even borrow to invest for your own business. You are yoked in the EMPLOYEE MINDSET and not EMPLOYER MINDSET.

    If you have business you will realise that you need OPM or other people’s money to grow your business ant not your savings only. So please grow up and change your mindset!

19. In developed countries borrowing rate is between 2 and 4% but shame government can borrow at 9% for sure what economic management is this?
    Its foolish to boost of people having confidence in you over kaloba bwana Minister?

    • because they know that this money will never payed back,not like in developed countries.

    • @concerned
      It does not work like that it will be paid back with interest if you default the consequences are dire…if I was fund manager and these corrupt reckless lot from a resource rich country walked in my office for loan I would happily lend them.

20. “We expect the Eurobond to be issued today. It will be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion and the maturing date is 10 years,” Amos Chanda, a spokesman for President Edgar Lungu, told Reuters.

    This was yesterday, now we are saying that $1.25b was a success? They couldn’t even place all the debentures they targeted. Please…

    ****

21. Reminds of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20 – “18Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.'” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?” – Shame

22. From the listed projects, I fail to see which one will make the returns necessary to pay for themselves in 11 years. This is borrowing for consumption and not for investment. Oh my how i hate this totally id!otic government.

23. Let me give you a summary of PF’s economic failures; so the Kwacha was at K5.4/ USD when the PF came into office, it is now at K7.5/ USD. The reason for this, is that extreme borrowing has led to an artificial demand for United States Dollars considering that the government has to pay for infrastructure in USD. Then you look at the economics, the PF has managed a budget deficit of 7% of GDP or $2bn. To cover for this, the PF has defaulted on pensions for 5 years by increasing the retirement age and has also shoved ZCCM shares on pensioners by arm-twisting NAPSA to buy these shares for $79M. It should come as no surprise that the amount of the Eurobond is very close to the budget deficit. My take is that Zambia will suffer an increase in VAT next year and also, and will grow at 5.2% only.

    • Well said, that is the last nail in the trap and Zambia has gobbled it down – I weep for my kin at home, the wages of not their sins are fixed !

      ***

24. Such a huge delegation to issue a Euro-bond? Will their allowances come from the bond?

25. Bravo to the government for this “ably negotiated” and “necessary” debt. Indeed in a decade, the clinics and primary schools being constructed would have generated enough income to help repay this debt.
    We have the vast experience of Alexander Chikwanda to thank for this deals. The man is legendary in this type of economics. Recall his vast contribution to the success of the the economy in the 70s?
    Further, the sharply focused vision of HE ECL and his ever-present and sober scrutiny of the national affairs is leaving nothing to chance!
    Ladies and gentlemen, we have an experienced team steering this boat (zambia) into the sunset, and this boat is not the titanic!

    • Your kidding right? Being sarcartic.

26. How much worse should things get before Zambians conclude that perhaps, the ‘rock that was forgotten’ has become the cornerstone? Let’s see what HH would do with our economy.

27. Me and myself cannot vote for any Party whose Government cannot borrow. It simply means a contractionary economic policy, no jobs and more taxes. This country needs to build infrastructure and Pf has shown us the way to do it. If you don’t borrow to build your house, your wife and children will never taste ma yard. Even HH has been borrowing to get rich, otherwise he stole the money.

28. Well, well we are in trouble. They are borrowing at a very high rate. Before they came to power even kwacha loans were as low as 11% unsecured and 9% secured at Stanbic and to borrow Euros at 9%, pathetic!!!!!!

29. Still Zambia has a better credit rating than Greece lol.

30. Mwebantu How do I buy in?

31. The actual rate is 9.375. Wonder where this figure has come from.

32. The money you are celebrating is other peoples’ savings. Shame on you! When are going to starting saving so that others can borrow from you? Investors are not stupid. They cannot be duped by Lungu’s rhetoric of the so called ‘development funds’ because they have failed to raise the $2bn. Instead of facing the tough choices of fundamental and overdue reforms, Lungu has chosen to burry his head in the sand. The $1.25bn raised is to fund the benefit system for the Zambian politicians and their cronies. The ministers, MPs and top government officials get free this, free that, even toilet papers is free. But the poor guy pays for every thing. This economy works upside down. You Zambians now is the time for soul searching and start looking for an alternative

33. I have nothing against borrowing but I have everything against thinking that borrowing is the panacea to our economic woes. Investment into economically viable and productive ventures must be the way. increased productivity and fiscal discipline are critical at every level. Reduced cost of doing business which include reduced unnecssary expenditure by government e.g. appointment of unnessary ministers, advisors deputy permanent secretaries, unnecessary by-elections etc are a must. Otherwise let us continue advising the President, let us continue to monitor him closely and in 2016 let us evaluate him objectively, without fear or favour.

34. Next Euro bond please. Useless people

35. Why are you celebrating, think of how you are going to pay back., why all these entourage, on tax payers , to go and borrow, 2 people are enough, do you need all this big group, honestly, what a waste of funds.

36. Those i d i o t s in that photo wont be alive when its time to pay back to the bazungus. Then therell be more “structural adjustments” and gnashing of teeth to be done by future generations. You are borrowing from people who are bankrupt themselves, believe me these guys know how to get their money money back tenfold, they will get all your land next time, it can even be reason for military intervention if you refuse to pay back, these guys dont know whom theyre dealing with .

37. Guys,
    I thought credit and borrowing was invented in Zambia. I went to work at Roan Antelope (Luanshya) mine in November 1974 as an underground Mine Captain. The first thing my Zambian colleagues asked for….WAS CREDIT, They called it inkongoli, or something similar. Less than half of them repaid me. One generation later, history is repeating itself. You have to live with it. Like me, I assume that only half will be repaid!….40 years later, no change.

Comments are closed.