By MUBANGA LUCHEMBEPresident Hichilema vowed not to favour Chinese creditors in debt restructuring of Zambia’s humongous external debts. Zambia’s debt woes triggered the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign default in 2020. The newly-elected government is in the process of restructuring about US$15bn external debts in order to secure a US$1.4bn IMF loan. Talks with creditors are due to take place in the coming weeks. The restructuring is seen as a test case for whether China would accept losses from a surge in loans to Africa in the past decade. Annual Chinese lending to Africa peaked at just below US$30bn in 2016. “We want to resolve the debt situation – it has to be resolved,” President Hichilema recently spoke in interviews with Western-controlled media outlets. “It’s good for Zambia. It’s good for creditors, because in the situation we were when we took office, it was a no-win situation. No one was benefiting.”Last month, the Paris Club group’s head of […]
Zambia’s debt restructuring
