IMF reaffirms commitment to Zambia

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva spoke on Tuesday (Jan. 24) at a townhall meeting where she took questions from people gathered at the University of Zambia about her organisation's work with the country.

In 2021 , Zambia agreed a $1.3 billion bailout loan from the IMF, whose conditions have been criticized by some as too drastic.

But Georgieva pushed back, saying the Washington-based lender was interested in seeing Zambia overcome its debt challenges as well as achieving growth .

"One thing I don’t wake up to worry about is that the IMF is a villain going to countries to take away their sovereignty because this is your IMF and we belong to you", said  Kristalina Georgieva , IMF's managing director.

Georgieva said on Tuesday she was "confident" an agreement to restructure Zambia's debt was within reach after engaging with the country's creditors.

Despite agreeing a $1.3bn bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund in 2021, talks with Lusaka's lenders have dragged.

The IMF conditions were criticized by some as bad for the country. 

Zambia owes a significant amount of its $17 billion external debt to private lenders including bondholders, but also to China .

In 2020 , Zambia became the first African country to default on its foreign debt since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic after mostly western lenders refused to freeze interest payments.