New President Hakainde Hichilema pledged on Tuesday to tackle Zambia's "unsustainable" debt, lamenting that the national budget was overwhelmed by the cost of servicing it.

Hichilema spoke during his swearing-in as the southern African country's seventh president, after a landslide election victory earlier this month over incumbent Edgar Lungu.

It marked Zambia's third peaceful change of power to an opposition party since independence from Britain in 1964.

The new leader, who lost five previous presidency attempts, must now revive an economy weighed down by debt, unpredictable world commodity prices and COVID-19. Zambia became Africa's first pandemic-era sovereign default in November. read more

"Over the last decade..., the debt situation has become unsustainable, reducing the country's capacity to invest," a masked Hichilema told well-wishers packed into a stadium in the capital, Lusaka, after performers danced to loud drum beats in celebration.

"Our national budget has been overwhelmed by debt servicing...We must restore this (previous) situation."

Also read: Opinion: Zambia's path towards sound economic management under new administration

Read more of this post