‘Removal of some subsidies a necessity,’ IMF denies imposing tough conditions on Zambians

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has denied imposing any tough conditions on Zambia such as removal of subsidies.

The fund, through its visiting Managing Director Kristalina Geogieva, has clarified that it did not impose any tough decisions to be undertaken by the government such as removal of subsidies.

Geogieva however mentioned that the fund at times made tough recommendations in a bid to help the respective countries.

She said this during the Town Hall session at the University of Zambia (UNZA) on Tuesday in Lusaka.

Geogieva said she was impressed that subsidies on certain sectors were removed because they only benefitted a few individuals in society.

Read more: IMF helping Zambia resolve its $13.4 billion debt challenge —Georgieva

“I must commend government for removing things like subsidies on certain commodities which benefitted wealthy people at the expense of the poor who could not afford such as education,” she said.

She said the IMF had learnt from past experiences where its programmes had failed because they were not owned by the countries that needed help.

Georgieva said that Zambia needed to diversify its economy and not just depend on the production of Copper.

Meanwhile, Georgieva urged Zambia’s creditors to give the country time to grow because at the moment, it was doing all the right things when it came to the issue of debt restructuring.

She observed that government had made positive strides and was doing the right things, calling on creditors to give Zambia more space to grow the economy.

Also read: Zambia to be in economic mess if debts are not restructured by March —Hichilema warns

“The creditors have to do their part on debt restructuring because the government has so far done a commendable job in meeting some of the conditionalities for the IMF deal to succeed,” Georgieva said.

She also commended the government for making decisive decisions of transferring funds to ventures such as education which she said was cardinal.

Georgieva said that the Zambians had the leadership it deserved which was keen on fighting corruption and bringing sanity in the governance of the country.