Category: Economy

There has so far been a total blackout of any Chinese online discussion, media coverage, and comment from government officials on Zambia's recent debt default. Neither the embassy in Lusaka nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing has commented publicly on the issue. ...

The Zambian finance ministry announced that it has reached a deal with the China Exim Bank to defer the repayment of loans totaling $110 million that were scheduled to come due through the end of 2021. ...

Three of Kenya's largest state-backed enterprises are showing signs of significant distress amid mounting debts, declining revenues, and a weakening currency. Chinese loans play a critical role in two of the firms, Kenya Railways Corporation and Kenya Power, while the third, Kenya Airways, does not appear to ...

The Ugandan government is reportedly in talks with the China Exim Bank to secure a $2 billion loan to build a new Standard Gauge Railway, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper.  The head of Uganda Railways Corporation, Stanley ...

One of the big misperceptions about China's economic engagement in Africa is that the central government in Beijing and its state-owned enterprises are the only Chinese actors on the continent. A pair of announcements this week highlight the large and growing role that Chinese provinces play in ...

Zambia on Saturday became the first African country this year to default on a portion of its debt after a coalition of bondholders refused the government's request for a 6-month repayment holiday.  The government said it cannot pay the $42.5 million ...

It appears that China's censors have moved to restrict media coverage of the ongoing debt crisis in Zambia. A search of major news sites, the market-leading Baidu search engine, and the social media platform Weibo came back with no results related to current events unfolding in the ...

The refusal by a coalition of Zambia's bondholders to provide the government with a 6-month repayment holiday on $3 billion of Eurobond notes followed by the subsequent default on those debts, sparked a considerable reaction in Africa and internationally -- but none among Chinese stakeholders.

Hi Eric and Cobus, Being a Zambian living in Zambia, I've observed with interest your coverage of the looming credit default by Zambia on its debt repayments to bondholders. You've mostly looked at it in the context of the COVID-19 induced ...

BBC Africa journalist Jameisha Prescod produced a short, five-minute explainer on what Zambia can expect next, following its announcement that it would be unable to meet a Saturday repayment deadline on $3 billion of Eurobond notes owed to private investors. Prescod ...

There's been a lot of confusion in recent weeks about just how much Zambia owes its creditors. Most international news coverage focuses on the amount of external debt, believed to be around $12 billion, but that's less than half of what the country owes when other creditors ...

In a somewhat odd bit of optics, two central players in Zambia's simmering economic crisis, President Edgar Lungu and Chinese ambassador Li Jie, were seen together on Friday inspecting a blueberry farm in Lusaka's Chongwe district. Neither seemed visibly concerned about ...