Zambia Secures Debt Relief Deal with Bilateral Creditors, Cutting Payments by $5 Billion Over Next Decade

Zambia agreed a memorandum of understanding with bilateral creditors to restructure about $6.3 billion of debt.

The agreement includes extending maturities by over 12 years and lowering interest rates.

Zambia will pay around $750 million over the next decade compared to $6 billion originally owed.

The next step is to make a comparable agreement with private creditors who are owed over $3 billion.

Zambia will remain in arrears with commercial creditors until securing a similar deal to the one with official creditors.