UPND BALLOONS ZAMBIA’S DEBT as it again BORROWS another US $184millon from IMF WHILE ZAMBIA’S US$ 3.5 BILLION SLIP AWAY IN CORRUPTION-Kasonde Mwenda C, EFF President

UPND BALLOONS ZAMBIA’S DEBT as it again BORROWS another US $184millon from IMF WHILE ZAMBIA’S US$ 3.5 BILLION SLIP AWAY IN CORRUPTION-Kasonde Mwenda C, EFF President

26 July 2025

On June 21, 2024, the UPND government proudly trumpeted a $184 million debt from the International Monetary Fund—heralding it not just as vital relief, but as a showpiece of reform and international confidence. In truth, this announcement should provoke national shame, not celebration, for what it signals about Zambia’s sovereignty, resource stewardship, and sense of proportion in economic governance.

At its core, the government’s glorification of this IMF borrowing is an insult to Zambia’s intelligence and dignity. It carries the perverse implication that without foreign “advice” and cash flow, Zambians are fundamentally incapable of enacting homegrown policies that strengthen their economy, protect the vulnerable, and manage mineral wealth for the people—despite decades of mining expertise, civil service, and civil society advocacy. Is it really reform if it is prescribed from Washington, rather than forged in Lusaka?

Even more egregiously, the entire IMF “reform” framework ignores—the government seems determined to ignore—the central reality of daily life: Zambia bleeds billions each year through unchecked corruption and egregious mining sector irregularities. The 2024 Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) report indicates illicit financial flows topping $3 billion, with mining sector abuse conservatively worth $1.25 billion annually. These outflows and losses are not abstract numbers; they dwarf the highly publicized IMF lifeline: $184 million is just 6.13% of the illicit flows alone, and merely 14.72% of the mining sector’s annual missing billions.

COMPARISON OF ZAMBIA’S $184 MILLION IMF DISBURSEMENT AGAINST BILLIONS LOST TO CORRUPTION AND MINING SECTOR IRREGULARITIES IN 2024

The stark visual representation above exposes the mathematical absurdity of the government’s celebratory rhetoric. While UPND leaders pose for photographs announcing their $184 million achievement, the chart reveals a nation hemorrhaging wealth at an incomprehensible scale. For every dollar received from the IMF,icit financial channels, while nearly $7 vanishes through mining sector irregularities alone. This is not reform—this is national economic suicide disguised as progress.

Why is the government congratulating itself for fetching scraps from the global lender’s table while simultaneously allowing far greater sums to be stolen in plain sight? What sort of “reform” is this, that oversees the most rampant era of corruption and under-declaration yet recorded—even as it pleads for outside validation and financial “rescue”? The numbers don’t lie: under UPND’s watch, the scale of financial hemorrhage has reached unprecedented levels, making mockery of any claim to effective governance.

In this context, the UPND celebration is not just disconnect; it is an act of national self-abasement, a ritualized display of economic defeatism. The paltry IMF tranche—won with fresh vows to modernize taxes and tighten spending—merely props up a status quo of elite enrichment and international dependency, while ignoring the real work of plugging leakages and truly harnessing Zambia’s mineral birthright.

The graph attached crystallizes the government’s warped priorities: celebrating international handouts that amount to statistical noise against the backdrop of systematic looting. While officials trumpet their success in securing foreign aid equivalent to less than two months of illicit outflows, the nation’s mineral wealth continues its exodus through transfer pricing schemes, misinvoicing, and regulatory capture that would make colonial administrators blush.

Until homegrown action defeats corruption and recoups what truly belongs to the nation, no amount of IMF handouts or photo-op announcements can mask the reality: Zambian policy is being written in someone else’s office, while Zambia’s wealth siphons out—year after year, regime after regime. The visual evidence is undeniable, the arithmetic is damning, and the government’s misplaced pride is nothing short of a national embarrassment. That is the grim arithmetic behind the headline—and the real reason why the latest IMF “success” is no cause for celebration at all.

The Economic Freedom Fighters-EFF will depart from the vicious cycle of depending on the IMF. We will develop Zambia based on home grown solutions. We will develop Zambia through maximization and ownership of our mineral and natural resources.

Zambia is highly endowed with natural resources which are unfortunately not in the hands of ZAMBIANS hence not benefiting ZAMBIANS, EFF will reverse that and give our people ownership of their mineral and natural resources.

Wherever we want to go our feet will take us there.

Signed:
Kasonde Mwenda C, Economic Freedom Fighters-EFF President