We ‘ll give IMF conditions for their aid – Mutati
Felix Mutati
By Prince Lubanga
FINANCE minister Felix Mutati says the Zambian government will for the first time give conditions to the International Monetary Fund before embarking on its aid programme.
The Zambian government has been pushing aside an IMF aid programme, with the recent visit of the IMF team led by Tsidi Tsikata returning to Washington DC without a clear position on where the negotiations for the recovery package are headed.
Sources have disclosed that the delays to get on the IMF programme was because President Edgar Lungu was uncomfortable with the conditionalities attached to the Bretton Wood institution’s aid.
The PF government, according to sources, feels comfortable contracting loans from commercial lenders at high interest because they would have a hand in how such financing is expended, unlike the IMF aid.
Speaking when he opened the Zambia Markets Indaba at the David Livingstone Lodge on Monday, Mutati said Zambia was engaging the IMF so that it could enhance its economic growth.
“For the first time, we will give conditions to the IMF. In Washington next month, things will get warmer,” Mutati, who is expected to meet the IMF negotiation team during the IMF/World Bank Spring meetings in Washington D.C next month, said .
And Mutati said the government would soon start dealing with public institutions that are financially dependent on it as this impedes Zambia’s economic growth.
He said there was need to reduce bureaucracy to grow the economy.
“For growth, we are looking at energy and transport so that we can reduce costs and creating an enabling business sector. We will also break down bureaucracies in 2018. We will deal with the public sector that encroach on government, that are so dependent on government because this is impeding economic growth; we will start this year,” said Mutati, adding that it was saddening that Africa, with all its potential, was full of duplicity.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief executive officer Philip Chitalu said capital markets could greatly contribute to the economic growth of the country.
And Capital Markets Association president Muchindu Kasongola said the corporate history was littered with corpses of firms that were once successful but closed down due to the failure to use appropriate financing structures.
Kasongola said there was need to move away from rhetoric to honest, sincere and constructive discourse around the challenges facing the capital market sector.
Mast Newspaper