HH Vows to Tackle Debt and Fill Empty Treasury

President Hakainde Hichilema has reiterated his intent to right the wrongs of the previous government and save Zambia from the financial crisis it sits on the brink of.

Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times in London, after his appearance and address at the COP26 climate meeting, President HH decried the rampant corruption of his predecessor in office, Patriotic Front member Edgar Lungu. 

“If you saw what I’m seeing now, you would fall off your chair. The treasury we inherited was completely empty,” said the President this week.

Zambia is nearly $15 billion in debt, including arrears, and there is a need for new terms with creditors and the IMF. However HH restated his optimism that, with his government and treasurers now in place, public spending would now go where it was intended rather than serve the agendas of corrupt politicians. 

Appealing to private creditors who may still have doubts over renegotiating loans with the new UPND government, President Hichilema said, “You don’t have a choice. You cannot boycott and expect a solution especially if your teeth were already in the beef”, referring to creditors who funded Lungu’s administration. 

The President also shared his plans to increase copper production, despite Zambia already being Africa’s second biggest copper producer, in a bid to attract bond investors and fresh terms with the IMF. The long-term ambition is to quadruple annual copper production from the current figure of 880,000 tons, provided the government is able to attract the right investments. 

Copper prices are at a 10-year high though which ought to expedite this tactic, recently surpassing $10,000 a ton. 

Finally, in what proved to be a frank and transparent interview about the state of Zambia’s finances and his plans to fix them, HH also vowed to devolve spending to local authorities.

“We’re taking money from a small clique of thieves in Lusaka and sending it to the local communities. Devolution, decentralization has been talked about since independence. No government had the courage to do it, but we are doing it”