By Amb Emmanuel Mwamba
Why is Zambia trying to buy back its Eurobond shortly after a “succesful debt restructure”?
Because its the most expensive restructure ever tying Zambia to pay billions in debt service and Interest every year until 2053!
Namibia and Mozambique saw the trap and chose to clear the debt in singke bullet payments than restructure and shift the burden to future governments and generation.
Debt restructure is not debt cancellation.
Creditors were so happy with the deals that they crowned Musokotwane the best finance minister!
Since 2024, Zambia is now paying over $1.1billion a year in debt service.
Zambia’s external debt service under its official restructuring framework is projected at roughly one billion dollars per year, with total overall debt payments.
Infact, of the total national budget for 2026,K253.1 billion Government set aside over $3.7billion (K72billion) for both local and foreign debt servce.
The debt restructure is ridiculously expensive…and this is before Government deals with the local debt!