Zambia’s government debt is set to fall further than almost any other in sub-Saharan Africa, Moody’s Ratings says — and its interest bill is set to remain the heaviest. The two findings sit side by side in the agency’s regional outlook, published on Wednesday 7 October and reported by Reuters, which raised its view of the region to positive, crediting reforms, strong commodity prices and easier access to financing.
Moody’s expects Zambia and Ethiopia to record the biggest drops in government debt in the region, and places Zambia among eight countries with a positive outlook, with South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and the Republic of Congo. Across the region it sees debt levelling off at 56.6 percent of GDP in 2027, down from 62.4 percent in 2025, and growth of 4.3 percent in both 2026 and 2027. But it also forecasts that around 35 percent of Zambia’s government revenue will go to interest payments in 2027 — the highest share in sub-Saharan Africa, matched only by Kenya.
State House: ‘hard choices’
State House welcomed the projection in a statement on Monday 12 October. Clayson Hamasaka, the Chief Communications Specialist, said the country’s debt was ‘set to fall further than almost anywhere else in the region’ and that this was ‘the result of hard choices, taken together, and of the patience and sacrifice of the Zambian people’, CAJ News and News Diggers reported. He added that the Government was not complacent — ‘the cost of servicing our debt remains too high’ — and said it would hold to fiscal discipline under the new IMF programme agreed at staff level on 9 October.
Bangkok: the delegation and the agenda
The arguments move this week to Bangkok, where the IMF and World Bank Group annual meetings run until Sunday 18 October — the first time in three years they have been held outside Washington. Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane leads a delegation that includes Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa, Bank of Zambia Governor Dr Denny Kalyalya and the permanent secretaries for energy and mines, Arnold Simwaba and Hapenga Kabeta, Lusaka Times reported.
According to a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Treasury carried by Lusaka Times, the delegation will work to advance the proposed 36-month, US$1.47 billion Extended Credit Facility, including its reforms and prior actions, and meet IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga. Also on the list: talks with the US Treasury, with Africa50 on financing for the Angola–Zambia power interconnector, the Kazungula Bridge corridor and domestic transmission, with partners on the Lobito Corridor, and with Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, Citi and J.P. Morgan.
On Tuesday 13 October Dr Musokotwane spoke for the Platform’s African members at the inaugural Governing Council meeting of the Borrowers’ Platform, a 31-member grouping of developing countries launched in Washington in April, Zambia Monitor reported. He argued that low-income borrowers should have a greater say in shaping the international debt system, that high financing costs and drawn-out restructurings were eating into development spending, and that the Platform should move ‘from establishing structures to delivering practical results’.
Decisions about debt therefore matter not only to governments, but also to the everyday lives of our people.
— Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, Finance and National Planning Minister, at the Borrowers’ Platform Governing Council in Bangkok on Tuesday 13 October, as reported by Zambia Monitor
Sources: Reuters via Polity, “Moody's turns positive on sub-Saharan African countries” (7 Oct 2026); CAJ News Africa, “Zambia lauds sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest fall in debt” (12 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Moody’s projection of Zambia’s debt reduction excites HH” (13 Oct 2026); Lusaka Times, “Zambia Takes Debt, Power And Lobito Corridor Agenda To IMF-World Bank Meetings In Bangkok” (13 Oct 2026); Zambia Monitor, “Zambia urges African countries to strengthen voice in international debt system” (13 Oct 2026).