A Year after qualifying for a crucial US$1.3 billion IMF bailout package, Zambia remains at sea on whether the next pay out of US$188 million is coming home according to Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane in an interview on the side-lines of the Spring Meetings in Washington DC.
Speaking on various issues, the minister spoke of two issues but about the bail out, the second one stands out to access money from the IMF:
Dr Musokotwane said regarding the “sketchy” bailout package, “the second thing needed (to access the money) is to reach an MoU with the creditors giving financial assurance by the creditors ´as of now that has not happened´ and because of that there is no automatic reason to believe that the US$188 million will be released.”
At the centre of the crunch according to international independent analysts is the fact that Lusaka has not reached out to Beijing whom it owes about US$6 billion, the single largest creditor at the highest level, the holy grail.
Dr Musokotwane did not explain whether Zambia had an alternative in case the standoff with the creditors continues, and Zambia´s economy struggles amidst rising costs of food and fuel.
Zambia borrowed money from China, like many other African countries to build hospitals, schools, bridges, airports etc which now must be paid back with cooperation from China.
ANTHONY MUKWITA.
