Appearing on Diamond TV’s This Day programme on Tuesday night, Mr Nkhoma noted that the country had started reaping the benefits of the debt restructuring deal.
He said such sentiments by rating agencies were key in restoring investor confidence.
“There’s a new dawn on the horizon. The world that had shut down on us is now opening up. The international capital markets are now opening up for Zambia. Who would want to invest in a country that is in debt default?,” he wondered.
He said while the government sympathizes with citizens that the cost of living had gone up, the state was working non-stop to better the standard of living.
Mr Nkhoma said the UPND government had inherited a debt-ridden economy which it was repairing.
He said one of the reasons the cost of living had gone up was that the mining sector had been underperforming because the PF government had failed to run Mopani while Konkola Copper Mines had been liquidated.
He said Zambia relied on imports and once the mines, which are the country’s major forex earner were not functional, that had a ripple effect on the cost of living of ordinary citizens.
He said with Mopani under new ownership and new investments pouring into the mining sector, the future was bright.
“Issues of the cost of living are dependent on the exchange rate. We have seen what is happening around the mines on the Copperbelt. So many things have began to happen,” he said.
“The moment we get this economy going again, the issue of the cost of living being high will be in the past. The economy has not been growing in the manner it should.”
He said that it was unfortunate that on the farming front the country had been hit by a drought that had also affected the energy sector – with 83 percent of Zambia’s electricity being hydro.
“Yes, the energy crisis has hit us but there’s work that is going on in the background,” Mr Nkhoma assured.
The government has announced that load shedding hours are expected to significantly reduce after Zesco Limited recalls an additional 100mega watts (MW) from the export market, with Ndola Energy starting to supply 105MW to the utility, and Maamba Collieries also starting production of 300MW at its second plant.
Government, in collaboration with private sector, has also secured US$80 million to pay Maamba Collieries Thermal Power Station in outstanding dues for it to set up a second plant that will produce 300MW to supply to Zesco.
On claims that the UPND government had borrowed $6billion since assuming office in 2021, Mr Nkhoma dismissed the reports as “lies”.
“It’s a lie that we have borrowed over $6billion in three years…we have borrowed $1.5billion at zero or one percent interest. When the international markets shut you out, you fall on multilateral lenders like the IMF and World Bank,” he said.
Mr Nkhoma clarified that the money had not been used for consumption but towards
the Constituency Development Fund, stabilizing the economy, the agriculture sector, recruitment of teachers and health workers, among other uses.
