Zambia’s engagements at the 2026 IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., continue
to reflect a delegation focused on translating reform credibility into stronger partnerships, better
public expenditure choices, higher productivity, and broader opportunity for citizens.

On the margins of the Meetings, Minister of Finance and National Planning Dr. SITUMBEKO
MUSOKOTWANE, MP, has held a bilateral meeting with United Nations Development Programme
Administrator Mr. ALEXANDER DE CROO and his delegation. The discussions reviewed ongoing
cooperation between Zambia and UNDP, including the Green Finance Transition Facility, efforts to
expand access to financing, and the Timbuktu initiative, within the broader context of Zambia’s green
growth and innovation agenda.

During the meeting, the Minister underscored the importance of aligning support under these
initiatives with Zambia’s development priorities, including the operationalization of the Lobito Corridor
as a platform not only for infrastructure development, but also for industrial activity, value addition,
and expanded opportunity along the mining and agricultural value chains.

The discussions also touched on Zambia’s Ninth National Development Plan formulation process and
the Integrated National Financing Framework, reinforcing the country’s emphasis on ensuring that
international partnerships support practical, nationally anchored development outcomes.

In another development at the World Bank Knowledge Café, held under the theme, What Do
Agricultural Subsidies Really Achieve? Secretary to the Treasury Mr. FELIX NKULUKUSA shared
Zambia’s experience in reforming agricultural support from a direct input model to a more efficient,
transparent, and farmer-responsive electronic voucher system.

Zambia’s farm subsidy reforms are improving targeting, reducing leakages, expanding farmer choice
and creating scope for stronger agricultural productivity, the Secretary to the Treasury said, during a
World Bank Knowledge Café on agricultural subsidies.

He added that Zambia’s shift from a centrally managed direct input support model to an electronic
voucher system was driven by the need to address structural weaknesses in the legacy arrangement,
including poor targeting, weak beneficiary identification, limited responsiveness to differing agro
ecological conditions and the crowding out of private-sector participation.

He said the previous system, under which inputs were procured and distributed centrally, created
room for inefficiencies and leakages, including support reaching individuals who were not genuine
farmers. The model also applied a broadly uniform package across regions with different soils, rainfall
patterns and climatic conditions, reducing the effectiveness of support and limiting space for agro
dealers and other private actors to build direct commercial relationships with farmers.

Mr. NKULUKUSA said the e-voucher reform had strengthened beneficiary identification and improved
the Government’s ability to determine who should benefit from public support. In the process, Zambia
identified about 212,000 ghost farmers out of roughly 1 million beneficiaries, highlighting the scale
of inefficiency the reform was designed to correct.

He said the new system had also restored greater farmer choice by allowing beneficiaries to select
inputs better suited to local climatic and production conditions, including more appropriate seed
varieties in drought-prone areas. At the same time, the reform reopened the distribution chain to the
private sector, with about 650 agro-dealers joining in the initial phase, helping bring inputs closer to
farmers while supporting local business activity and employment.

On fiscal impact, Mr. NKULUKUSA said Zambia had recorded savings of about $30 per hectare in input
costs, while broader implementation had generated annual savings estimated at about $80 million.
He said that in Zambia’s fiscal context, the gains represented a meaningful improvement in
expenditure efficiency and strengthened the case for better-targeted support.

The Secretary to the Treasury said the reform was deliberately phased, beginning with a pilot in 2023
covering about 30% of districts, later expanding to 70%, with full coverage targeted in the 2026/2027
farming season. That sequencing, he said, was necessary because agricultural subsidy reform is
socially sensitive and requires evidence, learning and confidence-building before nationwide
implementation.

Addressing governance, Mr. NKULUKUSA said digitization, stronger data systems and improved
beneficiary verification were central to tightening accountability. He said the e-voucher model reduced
discretion, strengthened the audit trail and made it easier to direct support to intended beneficiaries
through approved agro-dealers. Zambia is also working with the World Bank and other partners to
strengthen the social registry so that support is better targeted and linked over time to pathways out
of dependency, he said.

He cautioned, however, that fiscal constraints remained significant. Rising imported fertilizer prices,
he said, has an impact on the volume of support that a fixed budget can sustain, making poorly
targeted blanket subsidy systems increasingly difficult to defend, particularly when they risk displacing
spending on education, health and other development priorities.

Mr. NKULUKUSA also said maize production among small-scale farmers supported under the program
stood at about 1.5 million metric tons in 2023, rose to around 3.6 million metric tons in 2025/2026
and could exceed 4 million metric tons based on the current season’s planted area. He added that
the Government was placing increasing emphasis on productivity per hectare, rather than total output
alone, as a more meaningful indicator of performance.

He said the reform should not be viewed as a stand-alone subsidy adjustment, but as part of a
broader shift toward the Comprehensive Agricultural Transformation Programme focused on
irrigation, digital extension services, climate resilience, agricultural financing, warehousing, market
access and commercialization. Zambia, he said, was moving from a subsidy-centered model toward
a wider productivity and transformation agenda.

Conclusion

Taken together, the message from Zambia at the Spring Meetings is that reform credibility must be
matched by implementation discipline and that fiscal reform, debt restructuring and international
cooperation should create room for productive, citizen-centered investment. For partners and
investors, the signal is that Zambia is seeking to consolidate confidence through policy consistency,
institutional seriousness and credible follow-through. For citizens, the emphasis is that reform should
increasingly translate into better-targeted support, stronger public spending choices and a clearer
path to jobs, resilience and broader prosperity.

Others accompanying the Minister to the IMF and World Bank Group Spring Meetings are Bank of
Zambia Governor Dr. DENNY KALYALYA and Deputy Governor for Operations Dr. FRANCIS CHIPIMO;
Permanent Secretary for Economic Management Mr. MULELE MAKETO MULELE; and Zambia Revenue
Authority Commissioner for Direct Taxes Mr. RICHARD KAPASA. Zambia has also been represented
at the Global Parliamentary Forum, held on the sidelines of the Meetings, by Hon. FRED CHIBULO
CHAATILA, MP, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Planning and Budget Committee, and Hon. SIBESO
SEFULO, MP, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy and Labour Matters.
And both Zambia’s Ambassador to the United States of America Dr. CHIBAMBA KANYAMA, and the
Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr. CHOLA MILAMBO, have been part of the
delegation to the 2026 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group.

The Meetings end today.