Zanu-PF government spending shock: where did the billions go?
IN his first address as president last November, Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to focus on economic recovery and to “shed misbehaviours and acts of indiscipline which have characterised the past.” But, faced with a tough battle to secure a fresh mandate after completing ousted President Robert Mugabe’s term, Mnangagwa abandoned his austerity pledge and resorted to […]
Botswana says China agreed to extend loan, cancel debt
China has agreed to extend a loan to Botswana for rail and road infrastructure as well as writing off some debt, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi said on Saturday. Speaking at the airport on his return from this week’s China-Africa forum in Beijing, Masisi said Botswana had made a pitch to China and “I am happy […]
Zimbabwe Can Be Middle-Income State in a Decade, World Bank Says
Zimbabwe, where a new president was elected this week, could become a middle-income country within a decade, according to the World Bank’s vice president for Africa. “It’s a country with huge potential,” Hafez Ghanem said in an interview Thursday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Zimbabwe “can easily become an upper middle-income country in a very short […]
Angola Settles U.S.$51,1 Million Debt
Bank of Namibia deputy governor Ebson Uanguta said the Banco Nacional De Angola has paid the outstanding US51,1 million debt owed Namibia. Speaking at a press briefing this morning, Uanguta noted that the outstanding amount was settled last Friday. “The Bank of Namibia is delighted that the debt repayment has been concluded in a spirit […]
No More Borrowings – President Edgar Lungu
President Edgar Lungu has instructed Ministry of Finance to suspend contraction of fresh debt and limit spending to projects nearing completion, among many crosscutting measures aimed at ensuring debt sustainability and economic stability. The Government will cancel some of the debts which have been contracted but have not been disbursed and those in the pipeline […]
No Escape for Mozambique as Secret Debt Troubles Mount
The IMF is not demanding more information on the secret debt, Finance and Economy Minister Adriano Maleiane told parliament last week (O Pais 17 May). Yet two statements this year by the IMF shows that it is, indeed, still demanding more data. Maleiane told parliament, “after analysing information we provided, on 21 November 2016 the […]
Zimbabwe Govt Claims Trusted By UN Agencies, Begs for More Cash
Government has pleaded with the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), to lure more humanitarian and development funding from its members for the country because of “the confidence we have built in UNDP” of managing donations. Since 2002, when Harare was slapped with sanctions by the European Union after America, western countries have been channelling both […]
Servicing of Tanzania’s National Debt to Gobble Up Sh9.5 Trillion in 2017/18
The government plans to spend Sh9.46 trillion on servicing the national debt, including paying contributions to social security funds in the next financial year, Finance and Planning minister Philip Mpango said as he tabled his ministry’s budget yesterday. In the current financial year, the government set aside Sh8 trillion for the same purpose and up […]
Does Mugabe’s Govt Plan to Accumulate More Debt?
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa’s pledge that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will continue to give exporters incentives under a $200 million African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim Bank) loan scheme has raised eyebrows that the government wants to contract more debt. The loan facility was used to back the printing of bond notes, a United States […]
