Minister of Finance and National Planning Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane says Zambia will not secure the $1.4 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by June this year as earlier anticipated.
Speaking during a media briefing in Lusaka today, monitored by the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Musokotwane however said government is confident that it will be able to seal the deal in September this year.
The Minister explained that the failure to finalize the deal by end of June is due to government’s delay in holding discussions with the creditors which leaves less time for the creditors and the IMF board to deliberate on the matter.
Musokotwane noted that the new timeline of closing the deal mainly depends on the discussions that are starting tomorrow between government and its creditors.
“I don’t think those discussions should take more than a month but then we also have another technicality which has arisen which is that even if the discussions go very quickly, say within a month, the IMF board as I have learnt this morning are going for summer recess. They are going for holidays, there is some time that is required for the management to deliver some papers to the board members so time must be allowed from the delivery of the papers to the time that the board will sit to discuss”, he said.
He mentioned that he is optimistic that the deal will be sealed in September because all the official creditors are now on board.
Speaking at the same event, IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh said it should be encouraging and motivating that Zambia’s official creditors are getting together for the first time as a group tomorrow to dicuss the debt relief they will provide to Zambia.
Sayeh said this is a big step forward and is motivated by the effort Zambia has made to address its problems.
She noted that getting the document to the board will be the next big step forward which she anticipates will happen by early August.
