After Zambia is Denied Appeal for Suspending Debt Repayment, Jesuits Encourage Debt Relief

On Friday, November 13, the leadership of the Ministry of Finance in Zambia held a meeting with members of country’s External Bondholders Committee to discuss the possibility to defer the payment.

However, the lenders denied the request, a decision that coincided with the expiry of the 30-day grace period that Zambia was granted after the Southern African nation missed paying her coupon of US$42.5 million bonds, which was due October 14. 

Following the decision to deny Zambia the appeal for a repayment deferment, a sovereign debt default has been triggered. 

In their November 15 message, JCTR officials explain that the absence of debt relief from the bondholders compels the Edgar Lungu-led Government to “undertake serious stringent fiscal, monetary and economic austerity measures, which will gravely affect the social sector.”

“The situation is going to become even worse in the event of sovereign default because the country is going to be blacklisted resulting in facing higher interest rates and lower credit rating, which will make it difficult to borrow and to attract capital investment which the country badly needs to grow its economy to fight poverty and inequality,” they explain.

More in Africa

Kenya’s President Appeals to Newly Chartered Catholic University to Consider Training Clergy for Other Denominations

Read the article

Viewing the present debt status as a real existential threat to the provision of public service, JCTR leadership calls on the Zambian government to “undertake an honest and hard reflection on how and why this country has found itself in a state that puts in danger the lives of its citizens.”

“Zambian leadership must present to the nation and the world a plan that will practically illustrate transformative and democratic practices to address the prevalent shortfalls in the country’s loan and debt contraction processes and in the public finance management,” they say.

The leadership of the Jesuit institution goes on to urge relevant government officials to “demonstrate how Zambia shall never fall in such perilous indebtedness again.”

The officials of the Jesuit research institution also call on citizens of the Southern African nation to “take keen interest and monitor this development.” 

They encourage Zambians to “demand accountability and involvement in coming up with a roadmap of how our country is going to pull itself out of this undesired and dangerous debt crisis that has a potential of being a liability to be passed on to future generations.”