ZAMBIA SECURES DEBT RELIEF DEALS

The government of the republic of Zambia has signed a Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) with a number of its lenders in a bid to restructure Zambia’s debt.

This comes at a time when Zambia is facing a high risk of debt distress as a result of the negative effects of COVID 19 on the Economy’s debt levels and as the country seeks additional resources to mitigate the negative social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The deal is set to help the Zambian government repair the health and education sectors that have been severely hit by the debt burden and the COVID 19 pandemic

In education, it is expected of the Zambian government to dedicate appropriate resources, financial and technical to ensure the right to free and quality education for all is maintained during and past the COVID 19 crisis and minimize the pressure on teachers and learners, by developing and building a robust online learning system that remains open while physical interactions are disturbed.

The agreement also comes at the right time when there is need for massive investment in the Health sector which includes settling arrears owed to suppliers such as the K29 million owed to suppliers at the UTH which is the country’s highest referral hospital.

The following is the president’s message from his official Facebook page.

“As part of our debt management and negotiation, we signed the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) With a number of lenders who include members of the Paris Club, Kuwait Fund, Saudi Fund, DBSA to mention but a few. This is meant to give us space to allocate money to health and education services.

The DSSI is a mechanism aimed at averting default on debt servicing as it happened before. We are working round the clock to ensure that Zambia’s debt becomes sustainable.”