REUTERS NEXT: Zambia pushing hard to restructure debt in Q1 - finance minister

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zambia is pushing hard to restructure its debt in the first quarter of next year, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference.

Zambia became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 era in 2020.

It secured a $1.3 billion, three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund in August, a crucial step in its quest to restructure external debts that Musokotwane has previously said were $14.87 billion at the end of June 2022.

Musokotwane added in the Reuters NEXT interview that private creditors were cooperating very well in debt relief discussions and that active engagements were happening with Chinese creditors.

To view the Reuters NEXT conference live on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, please click here.

(Reporting by Rachel Savage and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Alexander Winning)