Nawakwi Accuses Govt Of Reckless Borrowing

Edith Nawakwi says the government is borrowing money at a reckless rate for reckless expenditure.
Nawakwi, the president of opposition Forum for Democracy and Development, challenged finance minister, Alexander Chikwanda, to state developments he was undertaking that would generate the volume of money to repay the debt he had contracted.
Commenting on the newly-acquired US $1billion Eurobond, Nawakwi, a former finance minister, said in an interview that she was shocked that the minister was borrowing without investing the acquired money into sectors such as agriculture or railway development which could generate more income.
“They (PF) are borrowing from a commercial window where truly, there will be no recourse to say ‘I will pay tomorrow’. I can tell you that we are going to find ourselves as a country 10 years down the road in a situation where the creditors will come here and auction the State House of the Republic,” she said.
Nawakwi accused the government of not thinking about the future when borrowing.
“I think it is totally inexcusable for a minister of a country not to think about the future. When the first president borrowed money, he borrowed from concessionary windows like International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank’s IFC (International Finance Corporation) and bilateral loans from Yugoslavia and from Russia. I, Edith Nawakwi, could 30 years down the road be able to sit with the Russian government and re-negotiate a loan to buy arms for Zambia because it was a bilateral loan,” she said.
Nawakwi said loans contracted from private entities would give the government problems in future.
“…I just want to know, what the productive developments are that he is undertaking now that will generate the volume of money to repay the debt that he has contracted?” asked Nawakwi.