By Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Zambia’s finance minister said on Monday he could not give a timeline for a debt restructuring deal with private creditors, while the International Monetary Fund’s Africa director urged all sides to compromise.
Zambia was the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID pandemic in late 2020, and its protracted restructuring efforts have been beset by delays.
It suffered a major setback in November after a revised deal to rework $3 billion of Eurobonds was rejected by its official creditors, including China.
“It is just a process. I cannot give you a timeline. I am hopeful,” Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Cape Town, asked when Zambia might reach a new deal to restructure the bonds.
“We’ve done everything on our side to get to debt restructuring. … This is why we are saying that they (creditors) ought to recognise the pain and difficulties that arise as long as this debt is not restructured,” he added.
In January, Felix Nkulukusa, the secretary to Zambia’s Treasury, said the major producer hoped to agree a new restructuring deal no later than the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Zambian officials went to China two weeks ago to discuss debt restructuring with representatives of the Export-Import Bank of China and some Chinese commercial banks, Nkulukusa said last week.
Zambia owed Chinese creditors about $5.9 billion at the end of 2022, according to the most recent IMF data.
Separately, senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) Africa official Abebe Selassie said on Monday that the ball was now in the Official Creditor Committee’s (OCC’s) court, and he hoped it would make a decision on Zambia’s restructuring soon.
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