We have not offered any State Owned Enterprise to any lender as collateral, Margaret Mwanakatwe says

FINANCE Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe says government has not offered any State Owned Enterprise to any lender as collateral for any borrowing.Mwanakatwe also says ZNBC has was never been offered as collateral for the digital migration loan as rumor spread.In a statement issued yesterday, Mwanakatwe said there has been no debt by government on the country’s debt obligations to the Chinese Government and other Chinese lenders.“With regard to the Digital Migration programme, the government obtained a loan from China to ensure that the programme was implemented in the country. This loan is being serviced by the Government and is on course without arrears. Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation was never offered as collateral for the loan. Instead, ZNBC and Start Times of China created an independent special purpose vehicle called Top Star to implement the digital migration programme; and,” Mwanakatwe said.The Minister explained that the security of all other loans contracted from the Chinese government is in form of insurance taken from Sinosure and for state owned enterprises an insurance from Sinosure and that guarantee from the government are in place.Meanwhile Mwanakatwe also said in the first half of 2018, a total of US$341.82 million was paid to various creditors as interest payments as opposed to US$489 million which was falsely reported in the Africa Confidential publication. Post Views: 202