🇿🇲 ECONOMY | Hichilema tells Musokotwane to turn Zambia’s economic repair into growth
President Hakainde Hichilema has retained Situmbeko Musokotwane as Zambia’s finance minister but given the veteran economist a substantially different second-term mandate: convert five years of debt restructuring and fiscal repair into investment, projects and economic gains visible to ordinary Zambians.
“The heavy lifting you did in the first term, now is the time to see results, Musokotwane,” Hichilema said as the minister took oath at State House on Monday.
“Let’s drive investments, grow investors, maintain fiscal and economic discipline and protect public money.”
The instruction captures the economic transition Hichilema is attempting after winning a second term. His first administration inherited a country that had defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020 and spent much of its tenure negotiating with official and commercial creditors, working with the IMF and attempting to restore confidence in public finances.
Musokotwane was central to that programme. Appointed in August 2021, he led the Treasury through negotiations over Zambia’s debt and implementation of the IMF-backed economic programme.
Hichilema is now asking him to preserve fiscal discipline while shifting the machinery of government towards execution, directing that roughly 60 per cent of the ministry’s attention should be placed on implementing projects.
The economic backdrop is considerably stronger than it was five years ago. Inflation has eased from earlier highs, much of the external debt restructuring has been completed and copper, Zambia’s principal export, is trading above $14,000 a tonne.
But improved macroeconomic indicators have not removed pressure on households, leaving the government under pressure to demonstrate how stability translates into jobs, incomes and lower living costs.
That tension sits at the centre of Hichilema’s Grow Zambia programme. The President wants annual copper production to reach 3mn tonnes by 2031, alongside 10mn tonnes of maize and 10,000MW of electricity generation capacity.
Delivering those targets will require substantial private investment, particularly in mining and energy, while maintaining the fiscal discipline used to rebuild Zambia’s standing with creditors.
Keeping Musokotwane therefore represents continuity, but not simply caution. The economist previously served as finance minister under Rupiah Banda between 2008 and 2011 and has held senior positions at the Bank of Zambia and Treasury.
His retention suggests Hichilema does not intend to abandon the economic framework of his first term as he pursues faster growth.
The President also warned against false information on social media which he said could undermine investor confidence. “To post falsehoods that drive away investments, you are damaging the Grow Zambia agenda,” Hichilema said.
Political criticism and scrutiny of economic policy remain distinct from deliberately fabricated information, however, and maintaining investor confidence will ultimately depend more heavily on policy consistency, institutions and economic performance.
For Musokotwane, the political equation has changed. Debt restructuring and fiscal stabilisation provided the first-term benchmark. In the second, those achievements will increasingly be treated as the starting point rather than the destination.
Zambians will now be looking for the dividend.
-The People’s Brief | Goran Handya