DEBT TREATMENT AGREEMENT WITH OFFICIAL CREDITORS UNDER THE G20 COMMON FRAME WORK.
Nevers Sekwila Mumba
President, MMD
23rd June 2023
We wholeheartedly congratulate President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND government on sealing the debt restructuring deal with our official creditors.
While this is not the forgiveness of our debt, it sends a strong message that Zambia has presented an intelligent, prudent and believable proposal to the lenders. The restructuring will allow Zambia to pay off the same debt while breathing instead of what was prevailing before when we had a noose around our neck.
As the MMD we know that this is not a small achievement as we recall what it took us while in government to be forgiven of the suffocating $7 billion debt in 2005. We had to employ high levels of economic prudence and maintained unusual fiscal discipline before we reached what was called the Highly Indebted Poor Countries(HIPC) benchmark.
The UPND government has walked a tight rope against public opinion to achieve this milestone. The economy had to be tight in order to keep the economic fundamentals in place to reach this point of approval by our lenders.
This would be the appropriate time for leaders of the former regime who contracted this debt to put politics aside and commend their successors on this achievement. This would be the most patriotic thing to do by the Patriotic Front.
With a more relaxed repayment program, one expects that some relief will now be noticeable in some sectors.
For anyone who attempts to diminish the significance of this achievement for political purposes, does not deserve to be called a leader.
Let’s get the country to work again, together