Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) has promised to create a national debt management office as an independent agency responsible for debt management policy. Such a move is likely to go down well with the IMF, from whom Zambia is attempting to secure an extended credit facility.
Zambia has a debt office embedded in its finance ministry, and whether or not it is a separate entity is unimportant, says Gregory Smith, an expert on Zambia and author of ‘Where Credit is Due: How Africa’s Debt Can Be a Benefit, Not a Burden‘, published in June by Hurst & Co.