International trade consultant Trevor Simumba has urged Government to come out openly on the current foreign debt stock.
Mr Simumba said Government through the Ministry of Finance should also explain how it hopes to sustainably repair all the loans that Zambia is contracting.
He said the level of Zambia’s debt contraction is now becoming a source of concern.
“This issue should concern every Zambian. Let us be very clear minded on the level of borrowing. If we include loans from China our borrowing goes up by an additional over 2 billion dollars,” Mr Simumba wrote on his recent Facebook posting.
Mr Simumba said according to the Finance Ministry’s 2013 Annual Economic Report,, Zambia contracted an additional $850 million in loans from China last year.
“That is on top of the $1 billion concessional loan the two countries (Zambia and China) agreed to in 2010, and more than $400 million agreed to already this year ($360 million for the new KK International Airport and at least $40 million for power infrastructure).”
He said, “Added together, this totals well over $2 billion, or more than 10 percent of Zambia’s GDP is loans from China alone.
Now I would like to know from learned colleagues and the very sharp economists from Ministry of Finance how do we hope to sustain this level of borrowing? What sectors will bring the necessary economic growth to justify all this expenditure? Please enlighten us so we may learn more.”
welcome to Kaloba republic of zambia under Sata,,,,,
no wonder pamela is very popular in zambia today than ever before,,,, its better we auction Zambia or we auction Sata and his ministers immediately!!!
Kaloba Nkongole
this is stupidity of the worst kind, how does a sane govt go on rampage acquiring credit as if it is for free? with these revelations there is no justification for this fossil called chikwanda as finance minister to continue. being finance minister is synonymous with borrowing money for him. atase!
Kikiki you have cracked my ribs ati kiloba republic eishiii!!!!!! That’s PF for you bakaamba! Just borrowing and borrowing until no one lends to us. Even the sky will never limit this mindless borrowing!
What do you expect from a man at his age with only 7 guns, nowonder too much thuggery & violence in the country. But HH will make a big difference in the governance of Zambia ever.
Now PF cadres vanish from LT maybe to tumfweko or mwebantu because LT is now for the opposition.
It’s politics at place always. Even a person who is learnt can behave like a bush product. 1: all the developed countries have debt in one way and another.
2: he wants zambia develop but not want to borrow
3: wants modern infrastructure /good hospitals, school and roads whilst he is blind to the fact that Zambia has to borrow to develop
4: he is asking the govt to create more decent jobs but has no crue
Summary
Good at cheap talk and no ideas of how to move from borrowing. USA is 17 trillion even more . Britain 3- 4 trillion in debt.
People like these are brainless and egocentric
This is like saying since my neba got a loan, I should get one too. Schools, hospitals should not be built on borrowed money. How is a hospital or school going to generate revenue? The issue.here isn’t even about asking govt not to borrow. It’s about how much has been borrowed and how the govt plans to repay that mane. A road by itself will not generate income for example if u r going ferry produce fine. But if u dont have structures in to get agriculture produce then wat will that road do? The question here what is our level of debt and what is the plan? The question is an interesting one, how are we going to pay back ?
Good evening
Probably, Mr. Simumba never heard about something called “Debt Relief”?
The unspoken truth is that the rich countries lend out their money knowing very well that it is almost impossible for the poorer countries to repay the debts and this is why most of these loans are written off up to as much as 60%. At the end of the day, we might not even pay up a penny because the remaining 40% will be paid by the Paris Club if we convince them that we put the money to good use. Basta! Chapwa! Kwasila! Kwamana…
hahahahahaaa! you live in Germany and you stil have a begging mentality ,,, debt re ,, what?,,,, where is your pride of taking care of your bills?… anyway you can get an african out the bush but not the bush out of an african
Chibwi no plan ndye uyu APA so
Nine Chale you must be the Deputy Minister to the fossil!
@Nine Chale
Probably, YOU have never heard about something called neo-colonialisim!
When Zambia owes that much money is it Independent anymore? Or are we just back to being slaves of colonialism?
Kaloba Republic of Zambia
Kolwe republic, they ve a tukaisova kuntashi mentality
Typo errors: data- sata; BY – H H
While borrowing is mandatory for developing countries but its obvious that Zambia should not be borrowing carelessly like this. Is it African mentality that makes us more a borrower than china and other countries that are /were in our group . The mortgaging of the country is criminal , we should command a stop to this madness of getting loans from private and bilateral sectors, which proving to be unhealthy for any sane country.
I agree with nine chale, 100 percent.
Nigeria is powering ahead with a $510b economy with almost no debt and Zambia is overloading her small economy with mountains of debt.I used to think we were better than Nigerians,i guess not.
Zambia is able to practise in borrowing now! We can live within our budgets and only borrow what we can afford to pay. Even FJ T was following that principle and up to RB. Motivations behind compulsive borrowing range within the thinking that wealth is paper money. Once we receive it, everyone cartel wants an unplanned share!
Instead of demonstrating in Britain about mining taxes or windfall taxes, indeed, ZCCM IH shareholding is not about protecting the interests of Zambia but more about adequate taxes are paid for our mineral extraction and checking tax evasion. Get witty negotiators into those positions. Zambia has many people who have international exposure which is one of the cardinal attributes to achieving this goal.
They are borrowing to beef up their off-show accounts, doing the drainage system and watering the greens around state house!
Haters…..!
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