Zambia asks UN’s Guterres to assist in debt restructuring talks

05 March 2023 - 10:10
By Taonga Clifford Mitimingi
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to help push for the conclusion of talks over debt restructuring.
Image: Bloomberg Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to help push for the conclusion of talks over debt restructuring.

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema asked UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to help push for the conclusion of talks over the Southern African nation’s debt restructuring.

Hichilema, who on Saturday held a closed-door meeting with Guterres in Doha, described the debt restructuring talks as having not “moved fast enough” in an interview with state-owned ZNBC TV after the meeting .

“We’ve discussed with the UN secretary-general to assist, to push for the conclusion of the debt restructuring,” Hichilema said.

Zambia is in discussions to rework $12.8bn (R232.23bn) of external loans under the G20 common framework after the Southern African nation became the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign defaulter in November 2020.

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