“The $82m payment to China was done on a non-guaranteed debt”
By Rosemary Kamanga
The Ministry of Finance and National Planning has clarified on the 82 million US dollars payment made by ZESCO to China’s Exim Bank .
Secretary to the Treasury, FELIX NKULUKUSA says the payment which was made in 2022 was done on a non-guaranteed debt, which was not clearly defined for restructuring at the time.
He says the decision to apply restructuring treatment to the facility was made after the payment, prompting notification to the Official Creditor Committee -OCC.
Mr. NKULUKUSA explains that the parameters for eligible debt were defined later, with an agreement reached in June 2023 and a Memorandum of Understanding -MOU signed in October.
Reacting to concerns that the payment was made in 2022 when debt payments were halted in 2020, Mr. NKULUKUSA clarified that the debt Zesco serviced was at the time not part of the government debt stock as it was not guaranteed by government.
