{"id":22982,"date":"2026-01-28T05:55:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/imf-board-approves-final-review-of-zambias-lending-program-unlocking-190-million\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:52","slug":"imf-board-approves-final-review-of-zambias-lending-program-unlocking-190-million","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/imf-board-approves-final-review-of-zambias-lending-program-unlocking-190-million\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF board approves final review of Zambia&#8217;s lending program, unlocking $190 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday approved the sixth and final review of Zambia&#8217;s extended credit facility, it said in a statement, paving the way for a disbursement of $190 million.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Southern African nation reached a $1.3 billion financing agreement with the IMF in 2022, to support the economy as it navigated its way out of a debt default, before it was later expanded to $1.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite external and domestic shocks, Zambia has significantly reduced macroeconomic imbalances, made considerable progress on debt restructuring, and undertaken sustained fiscal consolidation while safeguarding social spending,&#8221; said Nigel Clarke, IMF&#8217;s Deputy Managing Director.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The government in Lusaka initially wanted to secure a one-year extension to the deal, before it changed its mind and opted to let the program expire without an extension request. No reason was given for the decision.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Zambia, which had hoped to secure about $145 million in additional funding through the extension, will hold an election in August, with President Hakainde Hichilema up for reelection.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16356,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-22982","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday approved the sixth and final review of Zambia's extended credit facility","published_date":"2026-01-28 07:28:40","news_description":"Executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday approved the sixth and final review of Zambia's extended credit facility","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26098,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22982\/revisions\/26098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}