In a significant stride towards economic stability, Zambia has successfully negotiated a pivotal debt restructuring agreement with two of its major creditors, China and India. President Hakainde Hichilema announced this breakthrough during the Nc’wala Traditional Ceremony for the Ngoni people in Chipata District.
This landmark deal marks a crucial milestone in Zambia’s journey towards financial recovery, following the country’s historic default on foreign debts in November 2020. The agreement with China and India, Zambia’s remaining official creditors, offers a glimmer of hope amidst the nation’s financial distress.
Economist Lubinda Habazoka, also a lecturer at the University of Zambia, hailed the development as a much-needed relief for Zambia’s foreign debt servicing program. He urged private lenders to follow suit and engage in debt restructuring negotiations to alleviate Zambia’s financial burden further.
Similarly, economist Emmanuel Zulu, a Civil Society Debt Alliance member, emphasized the potential positive impact of the deal on Zambia’s credit rating. He noted that the agreement sets the stage for Zambia to seek financial assistance from institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
President Hichilema affirmed the government’s commitment to concluding negotiations with private creditors shortly. He outlined key infrastructure projects, including road developments in Lundazi-Chama, Chipata-Vubwi, and Katete-Chanida, which are set to receive funding from the resources unlocked through debt restructuring.
Emphasizing national unity, President Hichilema called on all stakeholders, including the opposition, to collaborate in advancing Zambia’s development agenda.
As Zambia moves forward with its broader financial strategy, the successful debt restructuring deal with China and India not only provides immediate relief but also sets a precedent for international financial cooperation. With renewed optimism and concerted efforts, Zambia aims to navigate through economic challenges and realize its developmental aspirations in the coming years.
All we need is actualization we have heard alot of these stories it is time to see the manifestation of what has been talked about for the past 2 and half years. Signing is one thing and actualization is another thing otherwise kudus to HH.
Let’s hope it’s not one of those statements made on impulse especially that the announcement was made at an informal gathering. Let’s just hope.
Why is the celebration this time so gloomy, sombre than when you went round on car rooftops announcing the achievement of debt reassignment in June last year? Which deal has China/India signed. The same one or you drafted another. When was it signed? Maybe it’s more of a political statement than what is on the ground. Certainly not that Mr. Ground. How does he wait until he is in EP to pronounce that such good news?
Lets not hope anything. When countries start celebrating debt the dogs have come to the party.
Why are you blaming the people trying to address the problem, in stead of those who caused it? More importantly, why does Zambia owe India money? I hate the motherfakaz who sold our country, especially the land of my people to foreigners. Has anyone noticed that there are no private game reserves belonging to foreigners in Luapula and Northern Province? They sell other people’s land and use the money to build universities in their villages, or loot it. I have nothing against the ordinary people of these provinces, some of whom are my family members. Here I am talking of Michael Satan and Frederick Chipuba types
MyZambian #
You will see him a lot going to Eastern Province to announce such things. The reason is that support in Eastern Province has dried badly due to people being disappointed with HH who has turned out to be corrupt, liar and wasting grz resources.
@Mlongoti
Boza.
It’s one of them and that’s why no figures have been mentioned. How do you restructure zero amounts and no known timeframes? The statement is empty as the person that made it
Of all things HH went to talk about debts restructuring ku Ncwala ceremony?
Listen imwe ba ngoni, debt restructuring is same as Mpedzeni telling you that he is changing schedules in his your polygamous marriages.
It has now become song…..i don’t know how many times Zambia has secured the so called debt structuring deal…….the problem is we’re dealing with the government full of lies and they just make announcements to full its gullible followers…just with the Mines…..one day they have new owners. …….the following day they’re still looking for new owners…..
One day they say they have mitigated our Energy crisis so expect no loadsheding….the following day the other Minister comes and says exactly the opposite…..
It would appear you may not have followed this debt rescheduling issue very well or, to be kind, are deliberately ignoring the facts of how things have been unfolding and why.
NOW YOU ARE NOT HAPPY, THINGS ARE YET TO HAPPEN. IT’S NOT AN EVENT BUT A PROCESS – A SERIES OF STEPS AND ACTIONS THAT WILL DELIVER THE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE.
WATCH THIS SPACE MUNE!
Anonymous@
You have to forgive some UPND followers. They find it hard to make this goverment accountable for its lies. To those of us who are UPND when we critic UPND we get accused not to be Tonga even when we are.
@Makunka
You are so right some on here just want to throw out negativity
It has been a song since Independence, and we always cried foul as we are Africans and felt we deserved debt right off, His chap will go a long way in reducing that debt but will take many a year
Well done ba New Dawn. Now work on the private/Eurobond lenders. We will get there eventually. Troubles are many but this is a respite in the midst of the current drought and pending poor maize harvest and reduced electricity generation. Eyes on the ball. Don’t pay undue attention to distractors playing politics of standing on an. Anthill and shouting gibberish
I need my euro bond repaid and fast!
Hahaha only gullible naive people will believe this liar. Remember the same statement was made before and it turned out to be a lie. Fuseke!! UKA
And before sunset you will hear a completely different story……don’t say i didn’t warn you….this is UPND…master deceivers and they will blame it on PF
@ Lincoln
We want Zambia to develop not just fooling gullible praise singers……do you know that mines can give proper debt structuring ..but of course its very hard so let’s just get more kaloba which is easy way out….since we don’t like dealing with our own challenges better give it Muzungu to sweat for us….lets just sit down and eat leftovers whilst Muzungu takes home all our natural resources
Zambia keeps on securing debt structuring deal…….and the story of the new mine owners…..imagine you have a Sovereign Country and you busy looking for “mine owners”….and rush to IMF ….why can’t Zambia be the ” New Mine owners”…..and now being dependent on Chinese signature and Indian Signature for us not to starve to death……in the meantime lets give away our minerals in exchange for debt structuring
We have tried this numerous times, ending in failure all the time………
How can you expect a people who don’t have the equivalent of the word
” maintenance ”
in local languages to be able to run any large conglomerate ???
We don’t know what maintenance is. We don’t maintain things. Everything breaks down because of no maintenance.
It is not only maintenance from the all important engineering point, but social, economic and moral point.
Only when the importance of maintenance is taught from primary school will Zambians be able to run things.
Who forced Lungu to go and borrow Eurobond money and Chinese loans? Who defaulted on the loans? Prof Chirwa wrote a piece of a shallow analysis on how Zccm-ih could revive Mopani. Apart from the paper lacking technical, CAPEX and OPEX requirements nor feasibility of making all copper products for Africa from Zambia; the guy had not secured any finance and was banking on debt distressed GRZ to secure a Eurobond. A repeat of ZRL Eurobond saga. Mopani was nationalised in 2020. Where has he been all this time? I challenge all rich and influential Zambians in the diaspora like Chirwa to organise finances and come take over our mines and construct power stations so that profits can be incountry. Let them invest their own money. I dream to witness the making of an indigenous zambian billionaire.
@Makunku, Lincoln, tikki etc…ever heard of once bitten twice shy? Anonymous is not against successful negotiations by our ( should I say YOUR) government. He’s just being skeptical going by what we have been going through. By the way did our (or should I say YOUR) president only got the news while watching the Ncwala?
We know who are part of the clique…..
And will never be satisfied until the right trype of tribal GRZ comes in…….
We dont care about your rantings on LT………
The 2.7 million is now aatleast 4 million, that is all that matters.
Forwardee 2031……..
Just carry on singing your discontent over this GRZ handling of our debt that is your right
as it is ours to to support its efforts This debt was not solely brought about by this GRZ alone but goes way back, and an effort is being made to reduce it a far cry from other GRZ’s crying the old african song of write off because we were colonised, taken advatage of, suffered the slave trade Etc Etc
We have now taked responsibilty for what be borrowed as we should have done in the first place
there can only be one outcome and I know who my bucks are on
@ Spaka
HH is the one who paid Kambwili to insult the beautiful Tonga speaking people….Kambwili was doing it for the money as confessed by Mweetwa. …did you not hear what Cornelius Mweetwa said….NEVER TRUST A POLITICIAN…behind closed doors Politicians eat on the same plate and plot how to loot our natural resources together….like I said the only time Politicians work together is when they’re stealing
That is not true………
Media miss interpretation…….
UPND did not have confidence, time or energy to try to bribe the irratic CK…….
@Spaka… this was not a reported speech but a video recording. Don’t try to defend what you don’t know anything about. Why’s HH anxious to send Kambwili for treatment abroad? Mweetwa admitted that they used Kambwili just like they used useless Sampa.
Dejavu
If the erratic CK was used and paid by HH……
he would have told all by now ……..
Do you think CK would remain silent about that ????
GRZ would rather pay for CKs evacuation and have him die and be blamed , that is
unnecessary ammunition for his tribes men and the clique………
I don’t expect you to comprehend this high level line of thinking……
Modern sociologists will tell you …….
, every race or tribe that does not have
” maintenance ”
in their languages will never develop on their own……….
Everything in life needs maintenance.
Zambian languages do not know what maintenance is………
Only reference to repair is made. After things have broken down.
Let’s fix this anomaly by introducing the importannce of maintenance in primary schools.
So says a man who is against cultural dress in parliament!
Our government wanted to tactlessly bundle Club loan or Group loan from bondholders with the bilateral Government to Government debt. Lender interests differ. We have now learned a lesson not to attempt to mix oil with water apart from a false hope of an emulsion. Also, don’t be overexcited or overexpectant. One step at a time.
Congratulations.
If this is what walked back Zambia’s economic breakthrough, we are yet to see how it unfolds in the second quarter (up to June).
@Deja Vu, Anonymous, tikki, Spark etal, give Zambians a different narrative, yours has outlived factcheck truths. Option, migrate and seek asylum 1951 Geneva Convention gives you the right to migrate to any country of your choice. Hint, Europe is accepting migrants so long you survive drowning in the Mediterranean sea. I love Zambia and its current leader
You don’t make sense or you just want to be on LT?
@MunaDekhane
Good for you my dear friend…..given a chance I know you will migrate via the Mediterranean ocean
Just like in the USA….the only time Republicans are Democrats work together is when they’re planning to invade a country and throw bombs….and kill innocent pregnant mothers and children and steal other country’s natural resources….@Spaka if you look closely at Kambwili’s video when he was insulting Tonga you can see the Background looks like HH’s house…….so he was actually at HH’ s house when he was insulting Tonga people…..and Probably HH was also in the same room smiling…..
Zambia stopped paying their debts in 2020 , up to now they don’t pay and nothing is working on the economy we are not seeing anything , now debt restructuring which means you start paying what is the advantage .
I just wonder what will improve when you start giving out money to your lenders doesn’t it mean more suffering for masses !
WHO HAS BEWITCHED THESE PEOPLE? TH OTHER DAY THEY SAID FREE Education WAS IMPOSSIBLE , THEN THEY WONDERED WHERE MILLIONS FOR CDF, WOULD COME FROM. AN THE SAMETIME THEY WANDERED WHERE MONEY FOR STUDENT MEALS AND MONTHLY EQUALIZATION FUNDS WOULD COME FROM . THE EMPLOYMENT OF OVER 30 000 TEACHERS AND OVER 11000 MADE THEM MORE CONFUSED WITH THEIR DISBELIEF AND WANDE ABOUT WHERWHERE THE MONEY FOR SALARIES WOULD COME FROM , THEY THEN MADE AND PRONOUNCESD ASSERTIONS THAT HH WAS AN ENEMY OF THE EASTERN BLOCK ESPECIALLY CHINA AND RUSSIA AND THAT’S DEBTS RESTRUCTURING WAS GOING BE DENIED. TODAY THINGS ARE BEING DONE AND SEE AS PER NEW DAWN VISION . AND MINES ARE COMING BACK TO LIFE . UWAWA TABULA KABEPESHO
Why use capital letters?
WHO HAS BEWITCHED THESE PEOPLE? THE OTHER DAY THEY SAID FREE Education WAS IMPOSSIBLE , THEN THEY WANDERED WHERE MILLIONS FOR CDF, WOULD COME FROM. AT THE SAMETIME THEY WANDERED WHERE MONEY FOR STUDENT MEALS AND MONTHLY EQUALIZATION FUNDS WOULD COME FROM . THE EMPLOYMENT OF OVER 30 000 TEACHERS AND OVER 11000 HEALTH WORKERS MADE THEM MORE CONFUSED WITH THEIR DISBELIEF ABOUT WHERE THE MONEY FOR SALARIES WOULD COME FROM , THEY THEN MADE AND PRONOUNCESD ASSERTIONS THAT HH WAS AN ENEMY OF THE EASTERN BLOCK, ESPECIALLY CHINA AND RUSSIA AND THAT THE DEBT RESTRUCTURING WAS GOING TO BE DENIED. TODAY THINGS ARE BEING DONE AND SEEN, AS PER NEW DAWN VISION . AND MINES ARE COMING BACK TO LIFE . UWAWA TABULA KABEPESHO
WHAT SPIRITUAL NAME CAN YOU GIVE TO ONE WHO DOESN’T GIVE GREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE? IN OTHER WORDS , WHAT NAME CAN YOU GIVE TO ONE WHO DOESN’T APPRECIATE OTHERS GOOD WORKS?