Zambia’s Finance Minister, Margaret Mwanakatwe has on Sunday been fired by President Edgar Lungu.
Mwanakatwe had been Finance minister for just over a year.
The president gave no reasons for this decision. Mwanakatwe has been immediately replaced by Bwalya Ng’andu, the former deputy chief of the Zambian central bank.
The newly appointed Finance Minister resumed office on Monday.
The 9% across-the-board tax on sales of goods and services, which was originally due to be introduced in April, would help rein in the external debt of Africa’s second largest copper producer, which hit $10.05 billion at the end of 2018, and a fiscal deficit running at 7.5% of gross domestic product.
The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly warned that Zambia’s high debt and shrinking foreign exchange reserves leave its economy vulnerable.
