MARRAKESH: Zambia has signed a debt deal with its foreign lenders, the IMF’s chief announced Thursday, providing financial relief to the first African nation to default after the Covid pandemic.

Zambia had reached an agreement in principle with its creditors, which include China and Western nations, on $6.3 billion of its debt in June, but it had yet to be finalised.

A memorandum of understanding with Zambia creditors “has finally been signed”, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Georgieva made the announcement at a panel discussion on tackling debt around the world, which also featured Zambian Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane.

“The creditors have been wonderful,” Musokotwane said.

“But that by itself is not enough to provide the kind of life that these young people in Africa want to live,” he said

“What will deliver that? Higher economic growth to create jobs so that we no longer have youth crossing the Sahara, over the Mediterranean.”