LUSAKA, Oct 15 Reuters : As September 2021, the state power utility Zesco had a total debt of $3.5 billion told energy minister Peter Kapala in Parliament on Friday.
He added that Zesco had made $400 million in losses between 2018 and 2019 owing to the depreciation of the local Kwacha currency.
Zesco reported its own debt in today's exchange rate as 30 billion kwacha $.78 billion in 2019, raising the question of where the extra debt comes from and who holds it?
Earlier this month Zambia's finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said the Zambian public debt had grown uncontrollably over the past decade to more than $15 billion in June this year.
About $ 2 billion was parastatal debt.
Edgar Lungu won a landslide election victory in August, beating incumbent Hakainde Hichilema, but his cabinet has been primarily pre-occupied with bringing the country's massive debt to light so that it can get IMF emergency relief.
Zambia plans to implement policies aimed at making its debt sustainable and talks with the International Monetary Fund - a test case of western multilateral efforts to make the debts of developing countries more transparent - are moving quickly. nL 1 N 2 R 21 LJ Kapala said that disputed invocies and the inability of some mining companies to pay bills had resulted in these entities owing $887 million as at August 2021.